The Republican National Committee severed ties Thursday with the Commission on Presidential Debates, saying the nonprofit corporation is too biased to be trusted to host the high-profile candidate forums in 2024.
Breaking with three decades of tradition, the RNC’s unanimous vote against the Commission on Presidential Debates, also known as CPD. It was the latest fallout from the 2020 election when President Trump accused the commission of favoring then-Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden.
“Today, the RNC voted to withdraw from the biased CPD, and we are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people,” said RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.
The CPD has sponsored debates in every presidential election since 1988 and is governed by an independent board of directors.
Before the 2020 election, the commission had largely flown under the radar.
The decision is part of a broader rethink going on about the presidential nomination process.
The Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee, for example, this week adopted a plan to shake up the 2024 nomination calendar by requiring states to make the case for why they should host the first nomination contests based on a set of criteria, including diversity.
Under the plan, the traditional leadoff states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — would have to apply to keep their spots and convince the DNC they deserve to stay put.
The RNC’s move, meanwhile, was months in the making according to Ms. McDaniel, who said the party felt compelled to cut ties with the commission after it refused to address a series of grievances and demands.
“Over the past year, we have attempted to work with the CPD to enact simple and commonsense reforms to help ensure fair debates going forward: hosting debates before voting begins, selecting balanced and unbiased moderators who have never worked for candidates on the debate stage, and prohibiting board members from publicly disparaging nominees,” she said in an op-ed on Breitbart.com. “A guarantee that they would fix these issues would have solved the problem, but they refused to do that.”
Ms. McDaniel said party rules will be amended to “ensure our nominee does not participate in CPD-sponsored debates and will begin looking for acceptable alternatives.”
The CPD did not respond to requests for comment.
The RNC threatened in January to bar its candidates from participating in CPD debates, citing biased moderators and partisan comments from members of the commission.
Ms. McDaniel said GOP voters had lost faith in the organization and called for changes.
The commission responded at the time that it “deals directly with candidates for President and Vice President who qualify for participation in the CPD’s general election debates.”
The RNC wanted the commission to adopt term limits for its board of directors, hold at least one debate before the start of early voting and establish new rules for debate moderators to ensure they are nonpartisan.
It also raised concerns about partisan comments from members of the commission.
The CPD’s website says since 1989 “no sitting officer of either major party has had any affiliation with the CPD, and the major parties have no role whatsoever in running the CPD or setting its policies.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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