RNC chairman didn't think Nikki Haley was talking about Donald Trump
Watch more of CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett's interview with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus on the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley" at 6:30 p.m. ET.
The chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) said he didn't interpret South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's speech in response to the State of the Union Tuesday night to be a rebuke Donald Trump - even though Haley has said she had the GOP candidate in mind.
"That's is not the way I interpreted it. I just interpreted it generally," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett, in an interview Wednesday.
"I wasn't sitting there listening and thinking about fighting within the Republican Party. I was just thinking about [how] the political rhetoric in general should be cooled down and I have always said things like that," he said. "It's nothing new for me to hear that."
Haley, who delivered the official Republican response, urged members of her own party to resist the temptation to follow the "siren call of the angriest voices."
In an interview with "CBS This Morning," Haley said that Trump was "not exempt" and the comment was referring to "a lot of things."
On "The Today Show," she was a little more blunt.
"He was one of them, yes. He was one," she said when asked which people constituted the "angriest voices."
Despite the internal tension, Priebus predicted that it won't stop the Republicans from choosing a nominee in the next several months - possibly before their rival party does.
"I would much rather have a little drama and some intrigue and interest on our side and then coalesce behind the nominee and have a lot of time to do it," he said. "I think it's quite possible by the end of March or mid-April we are going to be more settled than the Democrats on the other side and that is going to be a surprise to many people."