“This is the first step in the process of understanding what the candidates want, and then we need to have a more specific conversation about NBC”, RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer said Sunday ahead of the meeting. “Do you want Bobby Jindal’s campaign dictating how the debates will be run when Bobby Jindal may not even be in the race much longer?” “The answer is no”, said another.
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These debates are an important chance for voters to see conservative candidates under pressure and over time.
The Republican National Committee, facing growing concerns by a few presidential candidates about the format of future debates after last week’s contentious encounter on CNBC, has appointed an official to work with the campaigns and TV networks.
Marco Rubio, right, and Jeb Bush, argue a point during the CNBC Republican presidential debate at the University of Colorado on Wednesday. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called the primary debate schedule in 2012 “an embarrassment and ridiculous”, and the RNC unveiled a new plan for this cycle’s debates at the beginning of the year. They are not really for the candidates.
The new arrangement, with the campaigns in control, will take effect after the next debate, which will be hosted by Fox Business on November 10.
The Washington Post obtained a draft of the letter, and reports that additional demands will be incorporated into the final version.
If ten candidates think two hours is such a long period, someone needs to remind them that what it amounts to is a mathematical session of twelve minutes per candidate, but a more realistic period of eight or so minutes for each of them, since there are other issues that normally eat up the time in such debates.
Lewandowski continued, “We’re going to make sure Mr. Trump has his best interests taken care of”.
“As we have for the previous three debates, the Trump campaign will continue to negotiate directly with the host network to establish debate criteria that will determine Mr Trump’s participation”, a Trump aide told The Hill in an email. Following his decision, two other candidates, John Kasich and Chris Christie, decided they, too, would step away from the group and negotiate their own terms, though they trail Trump badly in the polls.
“Stop complaining”, Christie said Monday morning on “Fox & Friends”. “Do me a favor, set up a stage, put podiums up there, and let’s just go”. The Trump campaign was opposed to inviting it back.
“Mr. Trump you’ve done very well in this campaign so far by promising to build a wall and make another country pay for it, send 11 million people out of the country, cut taxes 10 trillion dollars without increasing the deficit, and make Americans better off because your greatness would replace the stupidity and incompetence of others”. The media’s job is to poke, prod, ask the tough questions and ask what they think the country might want to know.
The letter features stipulations for future debates, including guaranteed opening and closing statements of at least 30 seconds for each candidate. “They are aimed at drawing out more of who these people really are – or were before they became “[fill in the blank name], candidate for president”.
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We’d be all for tossing aside the usual debate format in favor of something totally different; how about a series of mini one-on-one debates with the competitors determined by a random draw? “Trump’s basically asking for the same thing – he’s just going to do it with his own letterhead”.
