The Republican National Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to step down from the Presidential Debate Committee, following threats to ban Republican presidential candidates from participating in non-profit-sponsored debates.
The RNC has accused the commission, which has been repeatedly attacked by Donald Trump, of being biased in favor of Democrats. The bipartisan commission, set up in 1987 to host the 1988 debate, has denied the allegations.
In a statement Thursday, RNC chairman Rona McDaniel said her party is “committed to free and fair debates”, but they will be conducted through other platforms. She did not specify them.
“Debates are an important part of the democratic process. We will find newer, better platforms for debate to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through a biased CPD to present their arguments to the American people,” he said. she.
McDaniel said the committee had refused to make changes requested by the RNC, including holding debates before early voting and “selecting moderators who have never worked as candidates in the debate.” The latter was a reference to the future host of the 2020 debate, Steve Scully of C-SPAN, who was an intern for Joe Biden for a month in 1978, when Biden was a senator from Delaware. Scully’s debate was scheduled for a moderate end after Trump objected to holding it in practice due to fears of coronavirus.
Representatives of the Presidential Debate Committee and the National Committee of the Democratic Party did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
In January, after McDaniel sent a letter to the debate committee saying the RNC had lost faith in the organization, CPD co-chair Frank J. Farenkopf said the RNC “wants to control things we are not ready to allow them to control.”
He also noted that the commission deals “directly” with the candidates for president and vice president, who meet the conditions for general elections, and not with their party organizations.
“The CPD’s plans for 2024 will be based on fairness, neutrality and a firm commitment to help the American public learn about the candidates and the challenges,” Farenkopf said in a statement at the time.
Trump’s repeated attacks on the commission during the 2020 election have prompted at least one member of the commission – a Republican – to break his “strict vow of silence” over his personal feelings about the presidential campaign. John K. Danforth wrote at the time that Trump’s accusations were simply wrong and contributed to undermining confidence in the democratic process. He also defended the committee’s chosen moderators as “highly professional and experienced”.
“Some suggested that the Presidential Debate Committee be dissolved and that in future campaigns the candidates simply negotiate the rules of the debate with each other,” Danforth wrote at the time. “Good luck with that.”
John Wagner and Josh Dousey contributed to this report.
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