RIP Presidential Debates? Republican National Committee Threatens To Prohibit 2024 Nominee From Participating

deadline.com:

The Republican National Committee is threatening to block its 2024 presidential nominee from participating in the next general election debate unless a series of changes are made to schedule and structure of the organization that holds them.RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on Thursday that the party would begin to amend its own rules at its upcoming winter meeting to prohibit those candidates from participating.“The RNC has a duty to ensure that future presidential nominees have the opportunity to debate their opponents on a level playing field,” she wrote in a letter to Frank Fahrenkopf and Kenneth Wollack, the co-chairs of the Commission on Presidential Debates.She added, “So long as the CPD appears intent on stonewalling the meaningful reforms necessary to restore its credibility with the Republican Party as  fair and nonpartisan actor, the RNC will take every step to ensure that future Republican nominees are given that opportunity elsewhere.”The Commission On Presidential Debates was set up as a bipartisan entity to organize and oversee the general election debates, starting in 1988.

But in 2016 and then in 2020, Donald Trump complained bitterly that the commission was biased against him. In the most recently cycle, he objected to the choices of some of the debate moderators, including Chris Wallace, then of Fox News, and Steve Scully, then of C-SPAN.But his campaign also objected to the debate schedule, with the first debate taking place on Sept.

29, 2020, after mail in ballots had been distributed in a number of states. They also protested when the planned second presidential debate, slated for Oct.