Free Republic

Picking this up on Closing Bell at CNBC.

nald Trump and his advisers have decided to work directly with television executives and take a lead role in negotiating the format and content of primary debates, which have become highly watched and crucial events in the 2016 race, according to Republicans familiar with their plans. Trump plans to reject a joint letter to television network hosts regarding upcoming primary debates drafted Sunday at a private gathering of operatives from at least 11 presidential campaigns, the Republicans said. The move by Trump, coming just hours after more than a dozen Republican strategists huddled in the Washington suburbs to craft a...

en Ginsberg, the Republican attorney who's become the pro bono debate negotiator for frustrated GOP candidates, has amended his initial letter of questions to TV networks. When Sunday night's meeting of Ginsberg and 13 campaigns concluded, Ginsberg said that he would incorporate their suggestions into a second draft. That draft is below, though a source cautions that no campaign has signed off on it so far.

RNC officials said they would not participate in Sunday’s meeting, but they have been reassuring campaign operatives that they are willing to recalibrate the events.

The 2016 GOP presidential campaigns agreed on Sunday evening to cut the Republican National Committee (RNC) out of the debate negotiation process and instead deal directly with networks moderating debates, Breitbart News has learned. Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager for frontrunner Donald Trump, confirmed to Breitbart News via phone on Sunday that the “biggest consensus” of five separate points the GOP campaigns agreed on was cutting the RNC out of the negotiations with the networks, as the campaigns would each like to negotiate with the networks directly. In response to the revelation that the RNC will be cut out of...

A few days after the CNBC presidential debate -- which the GOP campaigns called "horrendous," "stupid," and "ridiculous" -- the Republican National Committee has decided to suspend its plans to let NBC News host a debate on February 26.... Priebus also noted that the "moderators engaged in a series of 'gotcha' questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates. What took place Wednesday night was not an attempt to give the American people a greater understanding of our candidates' policies and ideas." He did not add that the American people would have also gained a fuller...