I had folks in the RNC spinning me the night of the election because they were sure that their guy [Donald Trump] was going to lose. But they were trying to make the case the RNC had at least done its job.

I will tell you my position now, as somebody who is ardently against [Donald Trump], as the sort of standard-bearer of the Republican Party and as sort of an impostor in the conservative movement, is, frankly, cautiously optimistic.

For sure, certain policies and positions that the party has had for 30 years are going to have to be rethought because [Donald] Trump does have a bit of a mandate when it comes to sort of thinking through trade and rebalancing our trade and how Republicans are going to sort of have a posture towards trade.

[ Donald Trump] is a man who ran on building a wall. And I know it was about legal immigration, but he did say incredibly vociferous things about Mexican-Americans and the Latino community that, frankly, regardless of if you take him literally or not, which most of his supporters don't - while they took him seriously, they didn't take him literally.

I'm shocked, like all of us, including Donald Trump, 'cause let's not pretend that even Donald Trump thought he was going to win this election.

I think this [ statement that Donald Trump would fight for LGBTQ people] is not just a story of the media spinning people up, but it's a story of special interests on the left, who also feel like their candidate lost, and stoking the flames on the fire because it helps spin up their supporters and help their donations and help their organizations. And it helps, frankly, polarize the country to their short-term benefit and at the expense, frankly, of progress for LGBTQ Americans.

I had folks in the RNC spinning me the night of the election because they were sure that their guy [Donald Trump] was going to lose. But they were trying to make the case the RNC had at least done its job.