Former Florida Jeb Bush on Monday called for the Republican National Committee to still hold the February Republican presidential debate with Spanish-language network Telemundo even though the committee suspended its partnership with NBC News.
“We should have the debate,” Bush, who speaks Spanish, told reporters on Monday, according to the Miami Herald. “I think we ought to have a Telemundo debate, or a Hispanic debate. It happened four years ago. Telemundo’s not part of the problem of CNBC. They (CNBC) just didn’t keep their word.”
Following the debate last week, the RNC suspended its partnership with NBC News and Telemundo, a division of NBCUniversal, citing major issues with the CNBC debate.
Representatives from the Republican presidential campaigns met on Sunday to discuss changes to the format for upcoming debates, and to seek a way to circumvent the RNC and work with networks directly on certain debate logistics.
Bush’s campaign proposed reinstating Telemundo to the debate on February 26, Politico reported. But Donald Trump’s campaign threatened to boycott a debate held with the Spanish-language network.
