Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Saturday dismissed his fellow Republican presidential candidates’ complaints about the CNBC debate and said that he will continue to participate in the debates no matter what.
“In the third debate, they asked me a lot of questions and I didn’t feel anything was below the belt,” he told CNN. “I don’t want to spend my time talking about the process of the debate. However they set it, I’ll show up and do the best I can to let people know who I am. So it’s just not something I’m focused on.”
Following the Wednesday night CNBC Republican presidential debate, numerous candidates expressed outraged over the questions posed and the tone used by the moderators. A few candidates, led by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, plan on meeting to discuss changes to the debate formats going forward.
And the Republican National Committee, which sponsored the debate with CNBC, was quick to criticize the network and push for changes to future debates.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus on Friday suspended the committee’s partnership with NBC News for a debate in February, citing concerns about the CNBC debate.
“The CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith,” Priebus wrote in a scathing letter to NBC. “We understand that NBC does not exercise full editorial control over CNBC’s journalistic approach. However, the network is an arm of your organization, and we need to ensure there is not a repeat performance.”
Katich it is so sad, that your fellow GoPers felt intimidated by the questions being asked by the CNBC moderators. Let’s face it, there is no platform whereby the GoP presidential candidates will show well at all.
So, I hope you all will plan on not having anymore of these crazy and bizarre sessions!
John Kasich is right. None of the questions was outside the bounds of very reasonable, yet I think Kasich is finding that “reasonable” isn’t what GOP Primary voters are buying.
Oh, great, so he wants to be the adult in the room. Governor, Jon Huntsman is on line 2 for you to explain how that will turn out.
Kasich appears to be the only candidate willing to talk to people outside the Republican bubble. Not a winning strategy, but I give him credit for that.
Missing a chance to denounce the " 'leetist librul meedja? " An admirable, but doomed, position to take in today’s GOTP