RNC pressed by conservative group to ‘retract’ offer to NBC for 2024 debate
October 27, 2023 05:25 PM
A conservative group is demanding the Republican National Committee prohibit NBC News from moderating the third 2024 GOP presidential primary debate over the media outlet’s “smearing” of the Right.
The RNC faced backlash this week from Republicans in connection to Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s group approving NBC for the Nov. 8 Miami debate, which will be moderated by its own Kristen Welker and Lester Holt, as well as conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. Now, Restoration of America, an advocacy organization spending millions of dollars to boost Republicans in elections, is pressing the RNC not to allow a “round-the-clock misinformation network like NBC the right” to host it, according to a Friday letter.
BIDEN SIGNALS DESIRE TO WORK WITH NEW SPEAKER WHILE CAMPAIGN UNDERCUTS HIM AS ‘EXTREME’
“It is amazing this letter is necessary,” Restoration of America President Doug Truax wrote to McDaniel. “In case you’ve been in a coma the last few years, we live in a new world where the government, Big Tech, and establishment media are openly colluding to hide the truth and help Democrats. The only way Democrats’ bad policies can survive in America is via a steady stream of propaganda.”
Truax continued, “NBC is right at the tip of this spear. It has spread thousands of false Russian collusion hoax stories, racial hoaxes, climate hoaxes, and gender and abortion misinformation. It lies 24/7 about nearly everything.”
Welker notably moderated the second and final debates for the 2020 presidential election between then-candidate Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The Meet the Press host’s family has long donated to Democrats and celebrated Christmas with the Obama family at the White House in 2012, the New York Post reported. Holt moderated the initial 2016 debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Trump is not expected to be in attendance at the 2024 debate and has skipped the other two. Those who have qualified for the Miami affair include Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), ex-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and ex-Gov. Chris Christie. It’s unclear if all those who qualified will necessarily go to the debate.
Following news of NBC handling the Miami debate, conservative figures took to social media to voice concerns.
“Absolute insanity,” Tom Bevan, co-founder of RealClearPolitics, a right-leaning news outlet, remarked on learning of the moderators.
“Simply amazing to me that the GOP hasn’t learned that in a Republican primary, you should never, ever let a single Democrat moderate your debates,” said Sean Parnell, an ex-GOP senate candidate.
Alex Brandon/AP
“You need to immediately switch gears and retract your offer allowing NBC to moderate the upcoming debate,” Truax wrote in the letter. “You can’t allow liars to frame questions to our candidates. You want to win in 2024, right?”
Meanwhile, Fox News also came under fire from conservatives over its second debate featuring moderator Ilia Calderon, an anchor for the Spanish language network Univision. Ex-Fox News host Megyn Kelly slammed the network in late September for partnering with Calderon, calling her a “leftist.”
A Fox News journalist who spoke with the Washington Examiner said they aren’t necessarily shocked the RNC handed the debate to a different outlet, given the prior Univision decision.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The RNC and NBC News did not reply to requests for comment.
Truax said in the letter that the RNC should “encourage and enable those media outlets that are speaking the truth, and to not reward purveyors of false establishment narratives.”