Candidates Sound Off on CNN's ‘Food Fight Format'

Cortney O'Brien | September 17, 2015 11:00 AM

Several of the candidates on stage at the second presidential GOP debate at the Reagan Library were not fans of CNN's style of questioning. Several of the questions seemed crafted in a way that the Republicans would feel compelled to directly challenge another contender on stage. For instance, Jake Tapper asked Jeb Bush to respond to Donald's Trump insult that he is a "puppet" to his donors, Dr. Ben Carson was asked to weigh in on Trump's take on vaccines and Sen. Rand Paul was prompted to address Bush's prior use of marijuana when discussing the decriminalization of the drug. Fox News caught up with the candidates after the event to get their immediate response to the network's strategy.

Dr. Ben Carson said CNN was "hoping for a bloodbath" and didn't get it, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich said there was "too much back and forth" at the beginning of the debate.

On Fox and Friends Thursday morning, Steve Doocy asked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio what he thought of the 'food fight' format.

"It looked lke they were promoting a pay per view boxing match," the senator said. "If you wanted more time to speak, you’d have to interrupt people and jump in.”

But, excuses aside, Rubio said it was up to the candidates to effectively communicate their message. Several pundits agreed that Rubio did just that when he said the next president needs to be foreign policy ready.

"There’s no more obligation to the country than to keep the country safe," Rubio expanded on Fox and Friends.

"The president on the first day could very well face a global threat. They’re not going to wait for the president to catch up."

The candidates' other complaints regarding the debate had to do with facetime. A breakdown of the Republicans' mic time came out in favor of Trump: he got 12 questions and nearly 19 minutes of airtime, while Scott Walker got a mere 8 and a half minutes.