Republican candidates will only marginalize their party further if they continue to seek more favorable debate terms without the explicit direction of the Republican National Committee, the New York Times editorial board opined this week.
In response to CNBC’s “weirdly hostile” primary debate last week, representatives from 13 GOP campaigns met with Ben Ginsburg, a Republican lawyer who has been acting as a go-between for the campaigns and the RNC, to produce a draft agreement that included 28 debate demands for TV networks.
The document, which is still being amended, and has yet to find a single Republican signatory, featured questions and recommendations regarding debate times, moderators’ backgrounds and question format.
The draft agreement comes after the RNC announced Friday that is suspending its partnership with NBC News for a debate scheduled for Feb. 26, meaning that the Spanish-language network Telemundo will also be shut out from the event. The debate is proceeding as planned, but only National Review will be allowed to participate in a moderating role.
For the Times, these developments will only hurt the Republican Party, and the RNC needs to regain control for its own good.
“To please [real estate mogul] Donald Trump, who pledges to build a 1,000-mile wall between the United States and Mexico and boycott any debate sponsored by the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo, these Republicans want to scrap the only debate to be hosted by Latino media,” the Times fretted.
“If these candidates get their way, they’ll ban media behaviors, including: asking the candidates to raise their hands to answer a question … asking yes/no questions ‘without time to provide a substantive answer’; showing audience or moderator reaction to candidates’ answers; and showing ‘an empty podium after a break (describe how far away the bathrooms are),'” it added.
The Times conceded that the CNBC debate did indeed include some “loopy” questions, but the GOP candidates are wrong to complain about media bias.
“In 2013, the Republican National Committee recognized that the party’s chances were endangered by such demagogy,” the editorial said, bemoaning that the candidates have taken the initiative in negotiating more favorable debate settings.
“Now it’s the RNC that has been marginalized. If malcontent candidates get their way, the party leadership will be all but shut out of the planning for debates, a chief means for Americans to hear and weigh the ideas of the candidates. The debates are too important to be guided by a daffy document drafted by hotheads, demanding media outlets ‘pledge’ that the temperature in the debate hall ‘be kept below 67 degrees,'” the editorial added, referring to one of the 28 recommendations included in the candidates’ draft agreement.
“The ridiculous manifesto drafted Sunday is undergoing revision. The RNC would do well to exert whatever influence it has. It is the party’s job, not the media’s, to save the Republican presidential candidates from themselves,” the Times said.
