Tag Archives: Republican Presidential Debate

Election, Politics

Fox Business Drops Huckabee, Christie from Main Stage in Upcoming GOP Debate

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Fox Business Network has announced the lineup for its televised, Wall Street Journal co-hosted Nov. 10 Republican presidential debate at the Milwaukee Theater in Milwaukee, Wis.

“In a departure from previous GOP debates, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee did not qualify for prime-time,” noted Fox Business. “Instead the 9 p.m. EST roster will feature real estate mogul Donald Trump; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; former HP (HPQ) CEO Carly Fiorina; Ohio Gov. John Kasich; and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.”

The network’s junior varsity debate will begin at 7 p.m. EST and will feature Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, and former New York Gov. George Pataki fell short of the polling required to qualify for the debate’s second stage and will be excluded from the event entirely.

[RELATED: Ad for Fox Business GOP Debate Blasts CNBC’s Debate Questions]

A Jeb Bush tweet, seen below, criticized Fox Business for excluding Lindsey Graham.

Christie and Huckabee tweeted responses to the news of their demotion to the network’s second stage.

MSNBC pointed out that Trump said that it would be “fair” for Fox Business to include Huckabee and Christie on the main stage.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/662642742628085760

According to The Hill, an adviser to former New York Gov. Pataki said that he is not dropping out of the race and will be appearing at campaign events in New Hampshire later this week.

Fox Business Network’s 7 p.m. undercard debate will last one hour and will be moderated by Fox Business anchors Sandra Smith and Trish Regan and Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau Chief Gerald Seib. The 9 p.m. prime time contest will run for two hours and will be moderated by Fox Business anchors Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo and Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker.

A midnight, post-debate episode of Stossel is set to feature a studio audience that will give what Fox Business characterizes as the “libertarian” reaction to the debate.

For more election coverage, click here.

Election, Politics

Ad for Fox Business GOP Debate Blasts CNBC’s Debate Questions

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After the moderators of CNBC’s October 28 Republican presidential debate drew significant criticism for questions embedded with personal attacks pitting candidates against one another rather than focusing on identifying positions on the issues, Fox Business launched a new ad on Thursday for its upcoming November 10 GOP presidential debate which attacks CNBC’s debate.

According to CNN, Fox Business’ latest ad for its upcoming debate says, “CNBC never asked the real questions, never covered the real issues. That’s why on November 10 the real debate about our economy and our future is only on Fox Business Network.”

[RELATED: How Would You Rate the CNBC Debate Moderators’ Performance?]

Fox Business notes that its televised November 10 GOP presidential debate will broadcast live from the Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin:

“Moderated by FBN’s Managing Editor of Business News Neil Cavuto and Global Markets Editor Maria Bartiromo, along with WSJ’s Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker, the primetime debate will start at 9PM/ET and include the top candidates earning 2.5 percent or higher, as determined by the four most recent national polls. The remaining candidates [who earn at least 1 percent in those polls] will be invited to participate in the 6PM/ET debate, which will be moderated by FBN’s Sandra Smith, Trish Regan and WSJ’s Washington Bureau Chief Gerald Seib. Both debates will focus on jobs, taxes, and the general health of the economy, as well as domestic and international policy issues.”

CNN says that Fox Business plans to offer candidates 90 seconds to respond to questions and 60 seconds for rebuttals when a candidate’s name is mentioned, rather than the traditional 60 second responses and 30 second rebuttals from previous debates.

In an interview on Fox News, embedded below, Fox Business debate moderator Maria Bartiromo discussed her philosophy on the purpose of the debates. “I think the point of these debates in general is to ensure that the voter out there has an opportunity to distinguish the differences of all of the candidates — the differences in their economic policy, their foreign policy, and also the differences in their leadership style and their governance,” she said.

“It’s not about me. It’s not about the moderators,” she added. “And so I go into this and I approach this next debate by saying it really is about the American voter. It’s about the voter and what he or she wants to know from the candidates and trying to help the voter distinguish what’s different between all of these candidates and, really, what is it from any of them, what is that little secret sauce that might come out to say to the voter, ‘Aha! That’s my guy, that’s my gal, that’s what I’m looking for, and that’s what’s important to me.'”

[RELATED: GOP Candidates Condemn Mainstream Media, CNBC Moderators During Debate]

Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto also implied that his network’s debate would be better than CNBC’s contest in a tweet, embedded below.

John Stossel will host a post-debate episode of Stossel at 12 a.m. EST which will feature a studio audience and offer what the network is characterizing as a “libertarian” reaction to the debate.

For more election coverage, click here.

Election, Politics

CNBC Releases Criteria for Inclusion in Oct. 28 GOP Presidential Debate

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CNBC released the candidates’ criteria on Wednesday for its upcoming televised October 28 Republican presidential debate, the third of the 2016 election season. The contest, titled “Your Money, Your Vote: The Presidential Debate on the Economy,” will feature Chuck Todd from NBC’s Meet the Press as a moderator and is set to take place at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo.

Though initial reports suggested that CNBC might forego having a second-tier debate for candidates who fail to qualify for the main stage, the news network has confirmed that it will indeed offer an undercard round, which will begin at 6:00 p.m. EST. CNBC’s prime time debate will kick off afterwards at 8:00 p.m. EST.

CNBC wrote in an announcement on the debate’s criteria, “National polls will be used to determine a candidate’s eligibility and placement on the stage. To be eligible to appear in either segment, a candidate must have at least 1% in any one of the methodologically sound and recognized national polls conducted by: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and Bloomberg, released between September 17, 2015 and October 21, 2015.”

The announcement continued, “To appear in the 8pm debate a candidate must have an average of 3% among these polls. The polls will be averaged and will be rounded up to 3% for any candidate with a standing of 2.5% or higher. Candidates who average below that will be invited to the 6pm debate.”

[RELATED: DONEGAN: If GOP Debate Stage Can Fit 11, Let Third Parties In General Election Debates]

NBC News pointed out as an example that “based only on this week’s NBC News/WSJ poll,” “Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Chris Christie” would qualify for the main stage, “Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal” would only qualify for the second-tier stage, and “Lindsey Graham, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore” would fail to qualify for either round.

CBS News’ Reena Flores wrote, “The CNBC criteria could also spell danger for one Republican contender teetering on the edge of the first tier debate stage: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Paul’s current poll numbers average at 2.8 percent — enough to round up to 3 percent and secure a spot in the primetime debate. But two new polls at 2 percent would be all it takes to shove Paul into CNBC’s earlier debate.”

[RELATED: Reality Check: Can The Republican Party Kick Donald Trump Out Of The Debates?]

Senator Rand Paul’s presidential campaign sounded an optimistic tone about the criteria in comments to Breibart, noting that Paul’s current polling results are on pace to qualify him for inclusion on the debate’s main stage.

“We are pleased that Senator Rand Paul will be on the main stage in Colorado. We look forward to seeing him present a clear vision for liberty later this month,” said Paul campaign communications director Sergio Gor.

For more election coverage, click here.

Election, Featured, Politics

Why The Secret Of The Trump Effect and Sanders’ Rise Isn’t Really A Secret

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Donald Trump has single-handedly sucked up all of the oxygen in the Republican race of 17 candidates who want to be the next president.

Media is scratching their collective head over the Trump effect.

But is the real story of this election so far not about who Trump is a candidate, but who he is not?

He was called a clown, a sideshow, a distraction. Yet billionaire Trump is not just leading in every national poll on the Republican side—he is dominating.

In fact, the latest Gravis Marketing poll out of Iowa shows Trump polling at 30 percent. That’s twice the support of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—Trump’s closest rivals in Iowa.

And he is doing the same thing nationally with as much as five times the support of the seven of the top 10 candidates.

That’s despite Trump’s comments on immigrants:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said. “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

And his comments about Sen. John McCain:

“He’s a war hero because he was captured,” he said. “I like people who weren’t captured.”

In spite of these comments, Trump’s candidacy is thriving.

What about on the Democratic side of the race to 2016?

Most media has fixated on Hillary Clinton as the likely nominee and she is leading in every poll. But the Democratic candidate who is on the rise with enthusiastic support is Sen. Bernie Sanders.

It’s visibly apparent in photographs of Sanders’ rallies that he has drawn the largest crowds of the race so far: 10,000 people packing in to see him in Wisconsin, 11,000 in Phoenix and 8,000 in Dallas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtBVuye4fZQ

Plus, polling in New Hampshire has Sanders climbing to 36 percent compared to Clinton’s 45 percent.

So who is he?

Maybe the more important question right now is who he and Trump are not.

In fact, up until five years ago, nearly all of Trump’s political donations went to Democrats. In 1990 he told Playboy that if he were to run for office he would do better as a Democrat than as a Republican.

Bernie Sanders isn’t even a Democrat. The senator from Vermont is the longest-serving Independent in the history of the U.S. Congress. And he calls himself a socialist. He is just running for the Democratic nomination.

But here’s the thing: right now voters don’t seem to care.

And that’s what you need to know.

A recent NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll shows that for the first time in modern history there are nearly as many registered Independents in America as there are Republicans and Democrats combined. That doesn’t take into account 7-8 percent of voters who are registered in minor parties.

The two major parties are hemorrhaging support.

Look, it’s a long race. And who knows who will come out on top. But what cannot be ignored by the two major parties or by media is that the secret to what is happening with Trump and Sanders might not be a big secret. Despite being on polar ends of the spectrum politically, they do have one thing in common:

“The top person can’t be bought. I’m worth far too much money. I don’t need anybody’s money. I’m not running with anybody’s money,” Trump told Anderson Cooper during an interview with CNN. “. . . I see Bush with the lobbyists and he’s sitting there with all these people, they are totally telling him what to do like a little puppet, and the same with Hillary and the same with everybody else.”

Watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5_ArQktFW0

“…we want a fundamental change in the politics of this country so that government works for all of us and not a handful of wealthy campaign contributors,” Sanders said at a campaign event in Minnesota last month.

The message from these two candidates is that most resonating—they both insist that the political system is rigged, for a few powerful people and against the majority of Americans.

At the end of the day, whether people like these two guys as individuals or not, on that issue, most Americans agree with them.

Watch a CNN interview with Sanders here:

Election, Politics

Fox News Announces Candidate Lineup for Aug. 6 GOP Presidential Debate

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Fox News has announced the candidates who qualified for its August 6 prime-time Republican presidential primary debate, which is set to kick off at 9 p.m. EST at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Anchors Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, and Megyn Kelly will moderate the televised event. Facebook and the Ohio Republican Party have been tapped as sponsors.

Candidates set to participate in the prime-time debate include billionaire Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Dr. Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Fox News chose to limit its prime-time debate to only 10 participants and selected qualified candidates based on a top 10 average of 5 recent polls by Bloomberg, CBS News, Fox News, Quinnipiac University, and Monmouth University.

However, in response to complaints that serious candidates with low poll numbers are being left out of the top-tier debate, the news network has invited those who did not qualify to appear in a 60-minute junior varsity debate, moderated by Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum, which will appear on Fox News at 5 p.m. on August 6, prior to the prime-time contest. Those who fell short of the top 10 include former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The network’s prime-time debate pre-show coverage will begin immediately after the junior varsity debate.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry responded optimistically to his failure to qualify for the prime-time contest and tweeted, “I look forward to being @FoxNews 5pm debate for what will be a serious exchange of ideas & positive solutions to get America back on track.”

However, according to CNN, Matt Beynon, a spokesperson for former Sen. Rick Santorum, called the candidate selection process “incredibly flawed” and said, “While FOX is taking a lot of heat, the [Republican National Committee] deserves as much blame for sanctioning this process. They should not be picking winners and losers. That’s the job of the voters, particularly those in Iowa and New Hampshire who have the role of voting first.”

Following Fox News’ announcement, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said, “Our field is the biggest and most diverse of any party in history and I am glad to see that every one of those extremely qualified candidates will have the opportunity to participate on Thursday evening. Republicans across the country will be able to choose which candidate has earned their support after hearing them talk through the issues.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich almost fell short of being chosen for the prime-time debate, which is taking place in his home state. However, his 3% polling average, tying him with Chris Christie for last place among those participating, was just enough to qualify.

For more 2016 election coverage, click here.