The Republican National Committee (RNC) is preparing to change rules regarding future presidential debates. On Thursday, RNC officials sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) notifying them they intended to move forward with plans to require presidential candidates seeking the party’s nomination to sign a pledge to not participate in any debates sponsored by CPD.
The CPD is a nonprofit commission founded by the two parties in 1987 to arrange the debates as a permanent part of presidential elections. However, over the last years, the organization has been accused of favoring Democrat candidates despite claiming to be nonpartisan.
The New York Times reports:
The change requiring candidates to refuse participation in the commission’s debates is to be voted on at the R.N.C. winter meeting in Salt Lake City in February. If the R.N.C. moves forward with it, it is unclear what that would mean for future debates. But it would change the approach to be similar to what happened before the commission existed, when the two parties or campaigns had to negotiate directly and agree on terms, or no debates would take place.
Mr. Fahrenkopf did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But commission officials have privately complained that R.N.C. leaders have conflated the processes around primary debates with those in the general election, which are the only ones the commission is involved with. They have also complained that the commission historically deals with campaigns and not with party committees.
The RNC cited scheduling concerns in its letter.
In 2020, more than one million ballots were cast before the first presidential debate on Sept. 29 that year, after some states changed their election rules because of the coronavirus pandemic and expanded both absentee and early voting. The party has been pushing the commission to host a debate before early voting begins in 2024.
Officials with the commission told the R.N.C. in December that one of the party’s demands in particular was unacceptable: having nonvoting representatives of either the R.N.C. or the Democratic National Committee at the commission’s board meetings. The commission wrote that it was still studying that and other concerns the R.N.C. had raised, including the choice of moderators, as part of its review before the 2024 campaign cycle.
The commission responded to the RNC’s letter that it will carefully review the suggestions however RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel accused the response of being designed to “delay any reform until it is too late to matter for the 2024 election.”
WOW… Has the Republican Party finally WOKE UP & decided to LISTEN TO COMMON SENSE?
Humpff! I will believe it when I see it. The current bunch of Republicans are a bunch of limp …. cowards.
Bullshit we all saw the partisan bull crap on full view all set with that sort of manipulation by them see it not just dems forbear we have seen the uniparty and is what is going in the debate commission
Ronna is right! That committee will delay any responses in order to ignore her requests!
In that case, if I were Ronna, I’d have a Plan 2 in which that Debate Committee has no more control and just the two political parties will agree to the debate and terms! After all, previously, you could always see the BLATANT DEMOCRAT CONTROL ISSUES that Debate Committee puts forth at every debate! Time for that to end and the debates be allowed to progress mutually!!
Work on Plan 2 or even 3 Ronna! Be prepared because this is going to be a rough election year for democrats as the RED WAVE hits them and they are going to be screaming and yelling all the way to the polls!!
No matter how this debate question goes, if we do not stop ballot harvesting, and require a picture ID to vote, no matter what else, we are in danger of a repeat of the 2020,questionable election. Boarded up windows, preventing poll watchers to observe the process of counting ballots, and many other too numerous to count, make the debates of little consequence,IMO
Its about time
Isnt Ronna McDaniel is Mitt Romneys niece. Not sure where her loyalties lie?
The RNC doesn’t want any candidate to debate Biden because any RNC candidate will make Biden look like the complete fool and demented idiot he is. The swamp sticks together and all the RINOs in the Rep Party don’t want one of their stars to look bad even if he is a Dem.
Can U show US some Guts & vision for 2022 takeover?
United on issues to save Nation OK
I was wondering–for the last 44 years–when we were going to wise up. Jeepers! That commission is just another Democrat Parry adjunct.
I quit donating to the RNC years ago as they don’t all align with me. I have no interest in supporting RINOs. Direct donations are the only way to go.
So RNC about time you fired back at the debate policy the Democrats have controlled for way to long. How is it they got the control in the first place? Rino republicans that how. Thank you for stepping up.
This should have been done decades ago. We might have avoided the unvetted Obama and the decrepit Biden.
All we want is an equal playing field… fair and honest elections decided by our citizens only. Glad the GOP is finally saying enough!
When the people STOP worshiping politicians. And bring God back into our lives like he expects us to. Then we have a chance. I don’t know why people are expecting things to turn up roses. Everything reeks of corruption. The doped up burned out hippies that have yet to die now teach your children to destroy their lives and hand their country over to foreign entities. And isn’t that so cool because that is what counts. Corporations live by the statement GIVE ME CONTROL OVER A NATIONS CURRENCY. AND I CARE NOT WHAT LAWS YOU MAKE. LAWS LAWS LAWS. And none of them are worth the paper they are written on. I just read a corrupt GREEDY attorney (as usual) is once again pushing for liability insurance for gun owners. And the BULLSHIT he’s spewing shows how STUPID he is. Again YOU will pay for the criminal. And I don’t see many fighting it since they won’t even fight or sacrifice for their own children. God’s judgement is going to be poured out full strength on this rotten dying nation of ours. As one stated. The world is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet. And this act they are moving on will prove NOTHING. Satan has managed to move into most peoples souls and they brag about it. You clutch the most destructive force and either love it or bitch and do NOTHING. You have only one way out. And it’s not through the fake Satanist politicians. Enjoy what YOU created.
Finally some common sense in NRC DECSIONMAKING! Almost unbelievable! Let’s see if it continues.
Yahoo, some more sanity coming from conservatives.
In addition to the CPD’s problem there still remains what I posit may be an even bigger hinderance to the debates as follows:
> The lamestream (a.k.a. mainstream) media has done their best to support the democratic candidate of their choice (all of them including Fox)..
> They are not really debating issues completely. They are almost always cut short.
> The debators should be able to openly ask questions of one another and the host should always push for an answer and call the candidate who do not answer the question at hand.
The RNC needs to get this vote done NOW.
Finally some courage.
Insist on moderators from BBC or Sky News. That’s the only way to get someone who is genuinely a disinterested third party.
Then a boatload of ayatollahs should killed now!! We can not tolerate that kind of threat without action / reaction. As the queen of hearts said off with their heads!
May all their pork eating children be born with loose toenails
It’s about time the RNC woke up and realized that the debate topics and monitors were all hand picked to make the Repi Logan candidates look bad.
It’s too easy to make a Democratic moron candidate look like an asshole and I’m sure the CBD feels it’s totally unfair.
Anyway, who needs a damn debate to make a Democratic candidate look like a moron.
They do just fine on their own!!!
And their is No need to debate that point. It’s a proven fact. Just look at our illiterate, illegitimate President Joe