Trump Campaign Suggests He Might Just Boycott the Next Debate (UPDATE: Carson Too)
Donald Trump‘s campaign manager today raised the possibility that Trump might just not attend the next debate.
According to multiple reports today, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was on a conference call today with other campaigns and CNBC to go over that network’s October 28th debate, the next of the GOP cycle.
CNBC had apparently decided to do without opening and closing statements at the debate, and Lewandowski reportedly said if they don’t get those statements, along with guarantees that the debate will last for no more than two hours, Trump may not even show up.
Lewandowski told The New York Times CNBC never went over its criteria with the campaigns, and so they never agreed to the criteria. He said it’s “imperative that the time be changed to 120 minutes” and “until we have this criteria specifically laid out, it is difficult to participate.”
Only time will tell if this is a real threat or if it will end up being as serious as Trump’s Fox News “boycott.”
UPDATE –– 2:47 pm EST: He doth tweet:
The @GOP should not agree to the ridiculous debate terms that @CNBC is asking unless there is a major benefit to the party.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2015
.@CNBC is pushing the @GOP around by asking for extra time (and no criteria) in order to sell more commercials.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2015
Why is the @GOP being asked to do a debate that is so much longer than the just-aired and very boring #DemDebate?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2015
UPDATE –– 3:40 pm EST: NBC News obtained a letter both the Trump and Ben Carson campaigns sent to CNBC laying out those same conditions and threatening to boycott the debate if they’re not met.
[image via screengrab]
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