Priebus on 2016 GOP Debates: I Expect We’ll Cut Out CNN and NBC

Daniel Doherty | August 07, 2013 7:30 AM

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus recently penned a letter to CNN and NBC with an ultimatum: if you produce and run pro-Hillary Clinton propaganda films on your networks, we will exclude you from the 2016 Republican primary debates. Period. But during an interview with two journalists from the Washington Post on Tuesday, Priebus said that, in the end, he doesn’t believe either network will comply with his request. Click here to watch the full clip:

Priebus: "My guess is this is exactly what’s going to happen: They will produce the films, and we will cut them out. That’s what I expect to take place.”

Even more important, perhaps, than cutting out liberal networks in 2016 is reducing the total number of GOP debates. If I remember correctly, there were twenty-three or so of them. And at times, they were painful to watch and counter-productive, to put it mildly. (Note if you follow the link above how Priebus calls them “traveling circus” debates). So the RNC’s decision to reduce the total number from twenty-three to somewhere between “seven and ten” would be welcome news. Yes, as Priebus explains, the RNC cannot and will not stop presidential candidates from participating in non-RNC affiliated network debates (and his mission of binding the nomination process to a strict observance to RNC rules and regulations could be a very long way off) but this is nonetheless a positive step forward.

Too often in 2012, moderators asked the candidates loaded and offensive questions with the veiled (or explicit) purpose of embarrassing them. Sometimes it worked. Why, then, should Republicans needlessly give Democrats extra fodder for the general election when they obviously don’t need to? Ten Republican debates are more than enough for voters to analyze and appraise the candidates. And of course, it doesn’t seem likely GOP primary voters would even lament left-leaning journalists’ absence from the debates anyway.