Agrees to two-hour debate
After threats by Carson and Trump to pull out of the upcoming CNBC presidential debate, the network agrees to a two-hour format including commercials, and also agrees candidates can have opening and closing statements. GOP campaign source:
People realized we got the short end of the stick when the Democrats had a 2 minute opening and a 90 second closing [during their debate], so they had three and a half minutes to a 15 million person audience of an infomercial. They get a commercial, we get The Hunger Games.
.@CNBC has just agreed that the debate will be TWO HOURS. Fantastic news for all, especially the millions of people who will be watching!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2015
CNBC ‘should be ashamed’
Priebus criticizes CNBC for how it handled the moderators and the overall proceedings for the Republican debate.
CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled. While I was proud of our candidates and the way they handled tonight’s debate, the performance by the CNBC moderators was extremely disappointing and did a disservice to their network, our candidates, and voters. Our diverse field of talented and exceptionally qualified candidates did their best to share ideas for how to reinvigorate the economy and put Americans back to work despite deeply unfortunate questioning from CNBC.