The leading 2016 GOP Presidential candidates Ben Carson and Donald Trump are threatening to boycott the next debate scheduled for October 28th on CNBC.
According to CNN:
Republican front-runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson are threatening to pull out of the next Republican primary debate if the hosts don’t agree to their demands.
In a letter to CNBC, which is hosting the next debate, the two candidates said they would not participate in the Oct. 28 debate “if it is longer than 120 minutes including commercials and does not include opening and closing statements.”
The article notes that the three hour CNN debate played a factor in the demands and CNBC is taking them into consideration.
“The demand for a two-hour debate comes in the wake of CNN’s decision to extend the previous GOP debate to three hours, leaving some of the candidates visibly exhausted.
One source who was on the call said it was clear from Lewandowski’s remarks that Trump had no interest in participating in the CNBC debate, which will be held in Boulder, Colorado.
In a statement, CNBC said, “Our goal is to host the most substantive debate possible. Our practice in the past has been to forego opening statements to allow more time to address the critical issues that matter most to the American people. We started a dialogue yesterday with all of the campaigns involved and we will certainly take the candidates’ views on the format into consideration as we finalize the debate structure.”
