"This is the sort of the professionalization that continues the pivot to the presidential," Reince Priebus said of the Corey Lewandowski firing Monday. | Getty Priebus sees Lewandowski firing as step forward

Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus called Corey Lewandowski’s dismissal from the Donald Trump campaign a “good sign.”

Priebus told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren on Monday that he saw Lewandowski’s ouster as Donald Trump’s campaign manager as a move forward for the Trump campaign.


"When you look at the shift from a primary election over to the general election," Priebus said, "this is the sort of the professionalization that continues the pivot to the presidential. I think it’s a good sign for the campaign."

The RNC chair’s comments were in response to questions about Lewandowski’s abrupt firing from his role as Donald Trump’s campaign manager earlier on Monday. Priebus maintained an optimistic outlook on the future of the campaign praising Lewandowski’s likely successor within the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort.

"Paul Manafort’s a pro,” Priebus said. “I think by building the apparatus around someone who's been through a presidential campaign is a good thing. People should look at it as a good thing."

When Van Susteren questioned the potential disloyalty of the staffing change, Priebus directed his answer toward the potential benefits of the maneuver, alluding to the rumored tumult in the Trump campaign between top staffers Manafort and Lewandowski.

“There’s no way to work a presidential campaign with competing factions and competing understandings of what the right approach is going to be and leave someone in the back seat and put someone in the front seat,“ Priebus said. “It just doesn’t work.”