(VitalNews.org) – Entrepreneur and political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy is urging the Republican National Committee to change the rules for the format of the debates and for qualifying candidates to participate.
Ben Yoho, CEO of the Ramaswamy campaign, wrote a letter to Republican Chair Ronna McDaniel. In it, he “respectfully” calls on the RNC “to revise its approach” so that GOP voters can concentrate “on serious candidates” with “a viable path” to defeating President Joe Biden in the general election, or whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being.
Ramaswamy’s campaign believes that, aside from former President Donald Trump, only the other top four candidates in the polls should be allowed to participate. The memo also called for a single moderator to oversee the debate.
The third debate is scheduled for November 8 and will be held in Miami, Florida. All of Trump’s rivals must now surmount their most difficult obstacle to participate: they must meet a threshold of 70,000 donors and at least 4% either in one national poll plus two polls for early states or in two national polls. They argue that — considering the chaos of the second debate, which featured seven candidates and two moderators, as well as “the reality” of Trump’s refusal to participate as the frontrunner — such revisions should be considered.
In a controversial move, Trump ditched both debates. During the first one, he arranged for a pre-recorded interview conducted by former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson to be released at the same time; for the second debate, Trump decided to visit the autoworkers striking in Michigan instead.
The Ramaswamy campaign memo also argued that more time should be given to each candidate to respond to competitors. Yoho wrote that another debate like the last one isn’t “an option” and that it doesn’t serve voters to waste time on “a cacophony of candidates” who don’t have a chance of winning talking over one another “while the overwhelming frontrunner” is totally absent.
Aside from the RNC chair, the memo was also sent to the Co-Chairs of the Committee on Arrangements, Anne Hathaway and David Bossie.
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