LOL RNC Threatens to Stop Putting Candidates Forward for Presidential Debates

[JoanofArgh]

The Republican National Committee has threatened to stop putting presidential candidates forward for TV debates unless organizers give in to a long list of their demands. According to CNN, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel sent a furious letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Tuesday, laying out what changes need to be made for her to advise future Republican nominees to take part in the debates. “Our sincere hope is that the CPD accepts this criticism and works to correct its mistakes,” she wrote. “If not, the RNC will have no choice but to advise future Republican candidates against participating in CPD-hosted debates, and the RNC will look for other options for its candidates to debate the issues before the American people in a neutral and nonpartisan forum.” McDaniel’s list of complaints included the timing of the debates, the political allegiances of some CPD board members, and its choice of hosts. They echo the relentless complaints from Donald Trump during the 2020 campaign.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-national-committee-threatens-to-stop-putting-candidates-forward-for-presidential-debates?utm_source=web_push


The debate commission, once a largely anonymous organization, has hosted presidential and vice presidential general election debates since 1988, acting as the nonpartisan organization that works with the major-party presidential campaigns to put the events on. While the commission has drawn some controversy in the past, it drew considerable ire from Trump during the 2020 campaign. He and his campaign aides often railed on a number of perceived issues with the commission, including the selected moderators, the commission's decision to hold the second debate virtually and the choice to mute each candidate's mic during the final debate after the first contest included considerable interruptions from the then-President.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/01/politics/rnc-letter-presidential-debate-commission/index.html


I still miss when the League of Women Voters held the debates.

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 3, 1988

LEAGUE REFUSES TO "HELP PERPETRATE A FRAUD"

WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FROM FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

WASHINGTON, DC —"The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter," League President Nancy M. Neuman said today.

"It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions," Neuman said. "The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."

Neuman said that the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on
September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns' agreement was negotiated "behind closed doors" and vas presented to the League as "a done deal," she said, its 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation.

Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called "outrageous" the campaigns' demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues.

"The campaigns' agreement is a closed-door masterpiece," Neuman said. "Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates' organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and self-serving demands."

Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments.

"On the threshold of a new millenium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate," Neuman said. "Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century."

Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to "rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate."