The Republican Party’s attempts at collective bargaining for changes in future debates have fallen apart, less than a day after they began.
After last week’s presidential debate on CNBC sparked cries that the it was full of “gotcha” questions and supposed liberal bias from moderators, representatives from the Republican campaigns met to draft a letter dictating terms for future presidential debates.
Less than a day after the meeting, Donald Trump’s campaign announced that it was opting out of the agreement and would carry out its network negotiations independently.
Shortly after, the campaigns of John Kasich, Chris Christie, and Carly Fiorina announced that they do not intend to sign the debate agreement, according to CNN.
A Republican campaign staffer told CNN that the candidates leaving the agreement makes the weekend’s negotiations “a total waste of time” because “it only works if everybody signs it.”
“I haven’t even looked at the letter,” Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told The New York Times Monday evening.
A spokesperson for the campaign framed the matter as the continuation of a policy: “As we have for the previous three debates, the Trump Campaign will continue to negotiate directly with the host network to establish debate criteria that will determine Mr. Trump’s participation.”
Trump’s refusal to participate in any collective negotiation, which came almost immediately after the letter was drafted, did not stop Ben Carson’s campaign from indicating to ABC its plans to sign the letter of debate terms with the rest of the “Republican team.” However, the team’s breakdown likely makes the Carson campaign’s statement moot.
The now defunct terms reportedly included bypassing the Republican National Committee in coordinating with network hosts, minimum lengths for mandatory opening and closing statements, an equal number of questions for the candidates, preapproval of on-screen graphics, and a ban on “lightning rounds.”
On the decision not to sign, Kasich told reporters, “Whatever we’re doing, that’s what we’ll do. Play it where it lies.”
As reported by Business Insider