Numerous Republican presidential candidates will meet on Sunday evening without a representative from the Republican National Committee to discuss grievances and propose changes to the primary debates, Politico reported Thursday night.
Representatives from the campaigns for Ben Carson, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC), and Donald Trump have begun organizing the meeting, according to Politico. Campaign staff from the campaigns for Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Rand Paul (KY), Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), and former Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) are expected to attend the meeting.
Candidates were quick to criticize CNBC and the RNC following the Wednesday night Republican presidential debate. Republicans griped that the moderators did not ask enough substantive questions, and some candidates lower in the polls are concerned about qualifications to make it to the debates and into the top-tier debate.
Carson was outspoken about his plan to rally the candidates to propose changes to the debate format. His campaign on Wednesday night said that Carson would be contacting other campaigns, and Carson himself confirmed that on Thursday.
“I’ve asked my staff to reach out to the other campaigns to talk about a change in format,” Carson told reporters at an event in Colorado, according to The Hill. “And we’re looking for an opportunity to actually be able to explain what your program is, what your philosophy for leadership is and then be questioned about it.”
Graham’s campaign manager, Christian Ferry, told Politico that the campaigns want to “find out what works best for us as a group.”
“I think the campaigns have a number of concerns and they have a right to talk about that amongst themselves,” he said.
Gail Gitcho, a spokesperson for Jindal, told Politico that the candidate is mainly concerned about the debate qualifications.
“Our continuous complaint is candidate exclusion and the delusional debate polling criteria. It’s unacceptable,” Gitcho said. “Maybe this meeting will change that, maybe it won’t. But we aren’t going to shut up about it.”
Is this going rogue or being stupid?
Nevermind, it’s the same thing.
maybe they could consider changing the rules to include actual debate over facts instead of vacuous name calling and allowing someone to state 'I don’t believe your facts its your ‘opinion’ not mine…
its nearly criminal that the RNC, with the acquiescence of the participants, try to choose safe venues and moderators that won’t ask real questions…
10 people on a stage for 2 hours, meaning each would get 12 minutes of ‘debate’ time is never ever going to add anything to a voters perception of any candidate in an informed and thoughtful manner…
The revolt from the establishment–and from reality–continues apace.
It’s hard to imagine where politics is going to end up in two or three years (let alone ten!), since these bozos don’t seem about to wake from their fever dreams.
Remember: The GOP changed the debate format from 4 years ago to be MORE friendly to the GOP. This is the result.
So much softness here. Answer the questions, Wussies. Also: If you only scrimmage against cupcake teams, with “no-contact” rules, you’re destined to be humiliated when you have to suit up for interleague play against the Big Girls.
Slaughter awaits.
D
My thoughts exactly.
Don’t they have a campaign to run ? They would rather be concerned with setting debate rules.
Then again, when did the republicans ever conform to anything normal.