Small New Hampshire College Had ‘No Idea’ CNN Had Planned GOP Debate There Says NYT: ‘What the Heck?’
CNN announced this week that the network is set to host two Republican candidate debates in January ahead of the Iowa and New Hampshire primary votes, both on college campuses. But at least one of those schools seemed to be out of the loop on their own participation.
The New York Times pointed out on Friday that New Hampshire’s St. Anselm College “had no idea what CNN was talking about” ahead of the big announcement that they were hosting a CNN-sponsored Republican primary debate on January 21st next year.
The Executive Director of Anselm’s Politics and Political Library, Neil Levesque, tweeted about it, saying that making such an announcement “breached the RNC debate rules” and that the school had not “planned or booked” that debate at this time.
He also pointedly added that they were hopeful to be chosen for an ABC News-hosted RNC debate.
@SaintAnselm @nhiop we were surprised to be included on a press release by a network about a debate which we had not planned or booked. Such a debate announcement breached the RNC debate rules. We have and will continue to work with the Republican Party on debates. #nhpolitics
— Neil Levesque (@NeilLevesque) December 8, 2023
@SaintAnselm @nhiop we were surprised to be included on a press release by a network about a debate which we had not planned or booked. Such a debate announcement breached the RNC debate rules. We have and will continue to work with the Republican Party on debates. #nhpolitics
— Neil Levesque (@NeilLevesque) December 8, 2023
The New York Times report quoted state Republican Party Chair Chris Ager, who was equally nonplussed.
“The CNN thing came out and everybody’s like, ‘What the heck?'” he told the NYT in an interview. “I’m still scratching my head. And I still haven’t been contacted by CNN at all.”
There is, however, a competing debate scheduled to take place three days earlier, hosted by CNN’s rivals at ABC News. The ABC debate, on Jan. 18, is set to be held at Saint Anselm, and it has the approval of both the college and state Republican officials. “We’ve been working for months planning with ABC,” Mr. Ager said. “We’ve already done a run-through of the facility. We’ve agreed on a lot of the details.”
The CNN announcement, Mr. Ager said, caught his team off guard. “For a big, professional organization like that, putting out a location on this date and the location doesn’t know — something’s not quite right,” he said.
CNN’s response to the Times was to say, “We can’t speak to any miscommunication within Saint Anselm, but we are moving forward with our plans to host a debate in New Hampshire on Jan. 21.”
Drake University in Iowa seems to be aware of their debate booking, so that’s something.
For sure it seems like telling the venue you’re planning to host an event with that you are planning to host an event with them seems like a good idea, going forward. Lesson learned.
