Last week on the same program, Dole, the 1996 GOP presidential nominee, said the current Republican Party should be “closed for repairs.” The Kansas Republican said he doubted he could make it in today’s party and added that former GOP presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon wouldn’t fit in either.

“The reality is if you look at the last two nominees, Mitt Romney and John McCain, I think that’s a pretty good counter-position to what Senator Dole had to say,” responded Priebus. Neither Romney nor McCain were the most conservative candidates in their respective fields.

Priebus said he sees “a tale of two parties.” In the off-year, he said, the GOP “wins about everything imaginable,” but “we haven’t decisively won a presidential race in 24 years.”