"President Trump clearly has not left the party," McDaniel said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters Thursday when asked about the rumored threat to leave.
"And I never shared my conversations with the President. But I will say one thing that is a very true statement which is: If he left the party we'd lose. If he left the party, Republicans would lose," she said.
She was commenting on a question about Jonathan Karl's new book, which reports that Trump told McDaniel "I'm done" with the GOP in a phone call from Air Force One as he left DC on his last day in office.
She declined to explain a prior statement further that the report was false. "I've already said what I was going to say, which is that the President stayed at the party. This is a non-issue."
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McDaniel repeatedly stated that Trump was critical to the fortunes of the GOP and credited him with helping Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, who did not campaign in person from Trump but who enjoyed a surge in voter turnout.
"I mean, if you look at the issues, it's the Republican Party, he's a big factor in that," she said.
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Asked about reporting about Trump's private and public push for former Vice President Mike Pence not to certify votes certified by states, McDaniel downplayed the potential for a contentious primary between the two.
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"I don't think 2024 is even on the radar yet. Until we get to 2022. Democrats have tried to federalize the elections four times this past year," she told DailyMail.com.
"I don't think any Republican looking at 2024 is even an option if we don't want 2022, so that will play itself out. I want everybody to be focused on 2022 in our party… And they can work up those disagreements at a later time."
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As to the substance of Trump's claims about Pence's authority, she said: "I think that was a lot of issues that happened in the election and we can talk about that. But that will be for constitutionalists."
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It is in the RNC's bylaws that it stays out of fundamental elections. She answered a question about the Wyoming state GOP's decision to remove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who voted to impeach Trump, serves on the Jan. 6th committee and supported a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
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