Republican National Committee Votes To Withdraw From Commission-Sponsored Presidential Debates

deadline.com:

The Republican National Committee is withdrawing from presidential debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, concluding that the group has been unresponsive to its concerns over the next events in 2024.In a statement, Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the RNC, said, “Debates are an important part of the democratic process, and the RNC is committed to free and fair debates.

The Commission on Presidential Debates is biased and has refused to enact simple and commonsense reforms to help ensure fair debates including hosting debates before voting begins and selecting moderators who have never worked for candidates on the debate stage.”The Commission on Presidential Debates is the non-partisan group set up in 1988 to host the fall presidential debates.

The organization, chaired by Frank Fahrenkopf and Antonia Hernandez, is tasked with selecting moderators, dates, formats and other elements of the events, which have produced some of the most consequential moments in advance of the general election.But in 2016 and then in 2020, Donald Trump and his campaign complained that the group was biased.

In the last cycle, Trump’s campaign attempted to influence the selection of moderators, sending the commission a list of suggested figures.