First Presidential Debate Pushed Back To September Due To Lack Of Candidates

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The Politico/NBC News presidential debate is reluctantly ceding its title of first-in-the-nation to Fox News. The two big media titans announced today that they will push the debate back to the fall because so few candidates have officially announced their plans to run.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation was scheduled to host the debate May 2nd, but in a press release today NBC Universal announced that the event will be rescheduled for September 14.

Fox News is scheduled to hold its own debate just a few days later, on May 5.

John Heubusch, executive director for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, explained in a statement: “Although there will be a long and impressive list of Republican candidates who eventually take the field, too few have made the commitment thus far for a debate to be worthwhile in early May.”

The debate was announced back in November with much fanfare, and then officially set for May 2nd in January. A press release in January also announced the moderators:

Brian Williams, anchor of the top-rated “NBC Nightly News,” will be co-moderator, along with POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris, a presidential scholar and one of the nation’s top political journalists. A Telemundo reporter will also join in the questioning.

The Reagan Foundation will also host a second GOP debate on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries.

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