The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced Friday that it would suspend plans to partner with NBC News for a scheduled presidential debate in February, in an escalation of GOP complaints about the “mainstream media”.
The decision comes after Wednesday’s CNBC debate, where the moderators were widely bashed by Republicans and described by the RNC chairman, Reince Priebus, as “extremely disappointing”. It could mean the cancelation of the only Republican debate scheduled to air on Spanish-language television as NBC News was scheduled to partner with Telemundo to broadcast the forum.
In a letter to NBC News’s chairman, Andy Lack, Priebus wrote “The CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith.”
“We understand that NBC does not exercise full editorial control over CNBC’s journalistic approach,” said Priebus. “However, the network is an arm of your organization, and we need to ensure there is not a repeat performance.”
Priebus insisted “while debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates’ visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC’s moderators engaged in a series of ‘gotcha’ questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates.”
In a statement, NBC News said: “This is a disappointing development. However, along with our debate broadcast partners at Telemundo we will work in good faith to resolve this matter with the Republican Party.”
Priebus said the RNC still plans to hold the planned debate on 26 February in Houston, and to partner with the National Review. But he did not specify whether there would be a second partner and how the event might be broadcast.
At a campaign event in Des Moines at Friday, the Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal, who has frequently criticized the RNC’s practice of holding “undercard debates” for candidates not doing well in national polls, weighed in. Jindal bashed the debate moderators to a crowd of roughly 50, saying: “The mainstream media lost the debate.” He went on to say that the GOP should take “a free market approach” to debates and “have as many debates as possible and let candidates decide which ones they should go to”.
Jindal said that the issue wasn’t the tough questions and thought that candidates for the presidency should be answering tough questions. Instead, the Louisiana governor said “the debate was a fiasco because the moderators asked inane questions”.
Tom Edsall, a long-time political reporter for the Washington Post and a professor at Columbia Journalism School, said that he thought the move was an attempt by Priebus to get back into the good graces of the GOP candidates. “The CNBC debate was a disaster for a lot of reasons, most of which was CNBC’s fault,” Edsall said. The candidates, he said, were angry with the party for allowing the debates to take place in a way that they dislike – both in terms of the moderators, and in terms of sheer length.
“But now, there’s a whole dynamic taking place that the Republican [candidates] are finding that attacking the media is really beginning to pay off,” he said. “So, Priebus is joining in the chorus.”
“But now, there’s a whole dynamic taking place that the Republican [candidates] are finding that attacking the media is really beginning to pay off,” he said. “So, Priebus is joining in the chorus.”
The RNC took control of the debate process over the 2016 cycle and employed an “exclusivity rule” to ensure that candidates can only participate in debates which the national party had sanctioned. This came after a chaotic process in 2012 that led to long-shot candidates like businessman Herman Cain and Representative Michele Bachmann rising and falling in the polls based on debate performances in nationally televised forums held several times a month.
A number of Republican presidential campaigns are scheduled to hold a meeting in Washington in Sunday to discuss what changes they would like to the debate rules and schedule. The meeting comes after both Donald Trump and Ben Carson had initially threatened to pull out of the CNBC debate if the running time was not reduced and candidates given the opportunity to make opening and closing statements.
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