The third RNC debate is on November 8 in Miami. The host is NBC News. The moderators have been chosen – two from NBC.
Lester Holt, Kristen Welker, and Hugh Hewitt are the moderators. This debate is the first outside of Fox News. It will be a two-hour debate.
Holt is the anchor of “NBC Nightly News.” Welker is the moderator of “Meet the Press.” Hugh Hewitt hosts a morning talk show for the Salem Radio Network, a co-sponsor of the debate. (Salem Media Group owns Hot Air.) Hewitt will be terrific in the role of moderator. The others? Meh. The last time I saw Welker moderate a debate, she came off as a standard Democrat partisan. I have no reason to think she will do any better this time.
I don’t know why RNC Chairperson Ronna McDaniel decided to bring a legacy network in as a host but perhaps the audience will broaden. The debates have not gone well, generally speaking. The first was chaotic but less so than the second debate. At this point, it’s a low bar for the third debate.
One of the non-Trump candidates will need to have a good night to start making some headway against Trump. Trump’s lead is still so far ahead of the other candidates that it is time to take the gloves off and stop refusing to bring his name into the debate. The top non-Trump candidates – DeSantis and Haley – are going to have to get aggressive. And they are going to have to go after each other, too. DeSantis is still the second choice Republican candidate but Haley is rising in some areas. DeSantis needs to stop her and go after Trump at the same time.
The qualifications for the third debate are the most stringent so far.
To qualify, candidates must poll at least 4% in two national polls or 4% in a national poll and one early state poll. The polling must be conducted on or after Sept. 1, per the RNC.
Candidates also must have a minimum of 70,000 unique donors, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in at least 20 states or territories.
There are only four candidates who meet the requirements at this time, other than Trump who has signaled he will not participate: Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie. There is a question as to if Ramawamy will participate. Earlier this month he told Fox News that he is “considering my options.” Many observers think Ramaswamy is a proxy for Trump in the primary race. Now it seems he is starting to make Trumpish decisions. Maybe he just doesn’t want to show up and have his butt handed to him by Nikki Haley again.
A much smaller field would benefit the non-Trump candidates. Seven Republican candidates who were on the stage for the second debate in Simi Valley, California have not qualified to be on the stage of the third debate. Tim Scott, Doug Burgum, and Mike Pence are among them.
Larry Elder dropped out of the primary race yesterday. He didn’t qualify for either the first or second debates. I think it is fair to say that if a candidate can’t qualify for the debates, they should exit the primary and winnow the field. Elder threw his support to Trump on his way out of the race. I look for Christie to drop out after New Hampshire, if he doesn’t win that state. He’s put all his eggs in that basket with hopes of slowing Trump. We will see how far he gets. I think the primary will come down to Trump, DeSantis, and Haley.
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