JEFFCOAT: Speaking of elections, you already have your eye set on 2024, the presidential race. After nearly a decade of criticism, the Republican Party is now demanding reform from the Committee on Presidential Debates (CPD). I want to read a little bit of your letter right here because you explain to the committee, 'So long as the CPD appears intent on stonewalling the meaningful reforms, the RNC will take every step to ensure that future Republican presidential nominees are given that opportunity elsewhere.' The RNC will initiate the process of amending the rules of the Republican Party to prohibit future Republican nominees from participating in CPD-sponsored debates. Accordingly, the RNC will initiate the process of amending the rules of the Republican Party at your upcoming winter meeting so you can prohibit future Republican nominees from participating in these CPD-sponsored debates.
Chairwoman, how do you foresee this decision impacting future presidential debates? How hopeful are you that the committee will agree to this reform that you want?
CHAIRMAN MCDANIEL: First let's be clear - we want debate. We want fair debates. We know Republicans win when we have a fair debate. But the CPD has had a history of bias going back from Donna Brazile giving a question to Hillary Clinton, to Candy Crowley. But this year, they pick the moderator who worked for Joe Biden. They started debates well after voting had started, and they had committee members openly criticizing our nominee. And those were three things that we ask for them to say to 74 million Republicans. We are not going to allow a refuse. So we need to start a process to give our nominee the right for a fair playing field when it comes to debate, and that's why we're doing this now. We absolutely want debate - we are just not going to go through an organization that will not commit to fair debate.
HEWITT: What got the committee to finally say, 'We are done with you. You are a biased arm of the DNC, even if you have some token Republicans on there?'
CHAIRMAN MCDANIEL: Well, I think for us it's that the Commission [on Presidential Debates] had no interest in working with the Republican Party which represents 74 million voters. And what they've done is they've set up a system where 'we'll only work with the nominee,' but by the time the nominee is in place, which is after the Convention and 2024, the debates are all set. So they [the CPD] have total control and a total monopoly. There were three things that were really egregious in 2020: they picked a moderator that worked for Joe Biden, they started debates after a million votes had been cast - we asked them to start debates before early voting starts - and then I think the third is members of their commission were vocally disparaging the Republican candidate and were allowed to stay in their roles - so this has been a cushy job for decades. They have a total monopoly and we said, 'Can you just guarantee us that you won't pick a moderator who worked for the Democrat candidate?' They won’t even say yes to that.
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