Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer broke this week with many in the press by praising the Republican National Committee and the GOP candidates for pushing back against CNBC’s “weirdly hostile” primary debate.
“The Republican candidates should quit while they’re ahead. They won this debate against the media. The debate about the debate is over, and they crushed the media,” he said during a segment on Fox News. “There is a general consensus, including in liberal media, that it was an awful debate run by disrespectful and kind of useless moderators, who clearly showed the world that there is a liberal bias.”
But he also warned that the Republican candidates who’ve criticized the CNBC for its apparent “bias” should not get carried away.
“So the GOP won, and actually came out of this debate looking good as a group. At this point, continuing to beat the dead horse is kind of pointless. [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie and [former Hewlett-Packard CEO] Carly Fiorina are right. We won that argument, we’re willing to show up anywhere, anytime and it actually helps them.”
He continued, advising that Republicans should definitely push back on perceived media bias, but they shouldn’t run from it. Let biased journalists hang themselves with their own rope, he explained.
“I think having conservative moderators — say [conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh] and two people he chooses — would be a splendid idea if that panel would be the moderators for the Democratic debate and the GOP will take any liberal because obviously when they took on the CNBC liberals, they won,” he said.
“The main issue is debating the ideas,” he added.
The RNC responded to the CNBC debate by announcing last week that it would suspend its relationship with NBC News for a debate scheduled for Feb. 26. The media blackout also means that Telemundo will be barred from participating in the event, which will move forward for now with only National Review acting in a moderating role.
The RNC and representatives from 13 GOP campaigns also met this weekend to produce a list of debate demands to be delivered to TV networks. No 2016 Republican candidate has signed the agreement yet.
