After Donald Trump’s campaign on Monday rejected the letter to be sent to networks by his fellow Republican presidential candidates with demands for upcoming debates, a few additional Republican campaigns followed suit in declining to sign the letter.
The campaigns for Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told reporters that they are not as concerned about the debates as their fellow candidates.
“We are declining to sign the letter. We’re happy the group decided to agree with us not alter the Fox debate. As the governor of Ohio, we are used to answering tough questions all the time,” Kasich spokesperson Chris Schrimpf told Politico.
The Christie campaign also confirmed to Politico and CNN that the New Jersey governor would not be signing onto the letter, citing comments Christie made on Monday morning that the Republican candidates should “stop complaining.”
Fiorina’s campaign emailed Ben Ginsberg, the Republican consultant who drafted the letter, to say that the candidate would not be signing on.
“As we have expressed publicly, we encourage the RNC to sanction conservative networks such as the Blaze and One America News to host and moderate a debate. We do not care whether it’s 67 degrees or our green room isn’t as plush as another candidate. Team Carly will not be signing this letter,” Fiorina spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores wrote in the email, according to Politico.
Even though the Republican candidates appear now to lack consensus on changes to the upcoming debates, Ben Carson’s campaign manager, Barry Bennett, told CNN that the defections won’t impact his effort to change the debate formats.
“Some of those candidates, in the latest polls, wouldn’t even make the stage,” Bennett said. “There are all kinds of egos in politics.”
The candidates reportedly finalized a list of questions and demands for the networks on Tuesday. The campaigns included demands about the types of questions networks could ask and opening statements, as well as rules about venue temperature and bathroom breaks.
