# Next debate suspended over 'gotcha' questions per RNC **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 30, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213 "2015-10-30T23:11:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/1 "2015-10-30T23:11:23Z")
**GOP tells NBC next debate suspended over ‘gotcha’ questions** It seems the Republicans want softballs pitched at them from the moderators during the debates. I’m wondering if it’s because they are afraid their field of candidates can’t handle a few fastballs without striking out? Personally, I take more from a candidate who can stand there and take the tough stuff, even if the answers aren’t the best, while remaining composed. Like Hillary did in the 11 hour marathon hearing. I want to see the candidate sweat, I want to see them under pressure, I want to see who shines and who folds. And I want to see who blames the moderators for this too. Another RNC fail here. > **[GOP tells NBC next debate suspended over 'gotcha' questions](https://money.cnn.com/2015/10/30/media/gop-debates-nbc-reince-priebus/index.html)** > > The Republican National Committee told NBC in a letter today it is suspending plans for a February debate on the network over the use of "gotcha" questions. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/2 "2015-10-30T23:19:37Z")
What difference would it have made? At least half the time, they entirely evaded the point of the question and spoke about something else altogether. “Senator, what is your telephone number?” “Well, Howard, Obamacare is worse than leprosy and Muslims are spreading sexual disease germs on our nation’s toilet seats…” ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/3 "2015-10-30T23:21:45Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > **GOP tells NBC next debate suspended over ‘gotcha’ questions** I do think that they are really mindful of how Carson did not just stumble, but he really fell off the clown car an got run over by his own denials of what business deals he had. > **[What Ben Carson’s Mannatech Answer Tells Us | National Review](https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-ben-carsons-mannatech-answer-tells-us-jim-geraghty/)** > > When I inquired about Ben Carson’s speeches and appearances for Mannatech late last year, I was told I would not be speaking to Dr. Carson; I was only permitted to speak to his business manager, Ar… > [@](#): > > When I inquired about Ben Carson’s speeches and appearances for Mannatech late last year, I was told I would not be speaking to Dr. Carson; I was only permitted to speak to his business manager, Armstrong Williams. > > From our conversation, it was clear Williams had no idea about any of Mannatech’s controversies, or then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott suing the company for what the state called “a particularly egregious case of false advertising.” (The company settled with the state out of court, agreeing to pay $4 million in restitution.) > > Both Williams and Carson insist there was “no compensated relationship” because the money for Carson’s speeches and appearances went through a Speaker’s Bureau. This is sophistry. The Speaker’s Bureau just transfers the money from the group to the speaker; Carson spoke to the group four times and talked about the company’s “glyconutrient” products in a PBS special as recently as last year. > [@](#): > > Mannatech wanted to improve its image and happily paid Carson, one of the country’s greatest neurosurgeons, the man Cuba Gooding Jr. played in the HBO movie – to appear at their events and to appear in the company videos. They put his face all over their web site (sometime between my story and now, those images were taken down). Carson’s lack of due diligence before working with the company is forgivable. His blatant lying about it now is much harder to forgive. And that was just the very conservative National Review, others from the left are even less kind to Carson. Really, any politician that is ahead in the polls and at that level should expect gotcha questions. In this case that question gave us a very important bit of information: The guys that are ahead on the polls are clueless or wilful ignorants that should not be trusted with the presidency. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/4 "2015-10-30T23:40:07Z")
Wait, its coming clear. Shut down regulatory agency, Medicare, Medicaid to mere traces of their former selves…its homeopathic government! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/5 "2015-10-30T23:45:03Z")
So I guess all that stuff about free speech, the First Amendment, a free press and liberty are all just so much chin-wagging when it comes to being able to ask Republicans tough questions. Like for instance repeating back to Trump some of the idiotic things he’s said and getting him to confirm that he really said them. Carson wasn’t even called out over his lie about his relationship with Mannatech. Yes, some of the moderators were hard on the clowniest of the clowns in the clown car. I still want to know what happened to all those Republican values about Freedom and Liberty™ and why they think it shouldn’t apply to the media where it’s the most important of all. Even if the CNBC moderators were overly tough on them – and that’s debatable – there is a real risk – almost inevitable, I’d say – that the threat of RNC sanctions is going to put a real chill on the questioning in future debates. Do they care? Hey, if it’s all softballs from now on, mission accomplished! ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/6 "2015-10-30T23:49:44Z")
a) Suspended pending discussions is nice … but I’ll go out on a limb to predict it will still happen. b) It is not the [next debate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_debates,_2016). The next one is on Fox Business 11/10, then CNN 12/15 in Nevada, then another one on Fox in January, on ABC, CNN, and CBS all in the first half of February. And _then_ the NBC/Telumundo one. After that doubling back to Fox and CNN respectively and then a conservative venue to be named later. Altogether 3 times on Fox, once Fox Business, 3 times CNN, once CSPAN, once CNBC, once each ABC and CBS. One “suspended” for NBC. And once an unnamed conservative venue. I highly doubt they really want to cut off their nose … ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/7 "2015-10-31T00:00:05Z")
> [@](#): > > …And once an unnamed conservative venue… \*\*OMG! \*\* Drudge Report is going to moderate a debate! ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/8 "2015-10-31T00:28:45Z")
Why don’t we just give them the questions in advance? That might help. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/9 "2015-10-31T00:36:58Z")
You mean, like an actual debate? Naah, that’s never gonna happen. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/10 "2015-10-31T00:59:36Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Why don’t we just give them the questions in advance? That might help. They could make it a contest. If it’s judged to be a genuinely hard question, then the question submitter wins a free trip to a gulag in Siberia. If it’s judged to be among the top ten toughest questions, the lucky winner gets to be executed on arrival. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/11 "2015-10-31T02:16:25Z")
We all get to watch Marco Rubio, the establishment candidate du jour, stand up to Hispanic voters and defend the notion that the Republicans permanently cancel a debate on Telemundo. It gets better and better. Gobs of glee. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/12 "2015-10-31T02:36:58Z")
Granted I didn’t watch the debate - but is it inconceivable that questions can be so poorly crafted as to illustrate the network does not deserve future involvement in debates? Asking if Trump is a comic book version, etc. is like inviting someone to your home then simply mocking them. If CNBC didn’t think he was a serious candidate then they shouldn’t invite him. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/13 "2015-10-31T02:50:20Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > **GOP tells NBC next debate suspended over ‘gotcha’ questions** > > It seems the Republicans want softballs pitched at them from the moderators during the debates. I’m wondering if it’s because they are afraid their field of candidates can’t handle a few fastballs without striking out? > … > Another RNC fail here. > > [GOP tells NBC next debate suspended over 'gotcha' questions](http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/30/media/gop-debates-nbc-reince-priebus/index.html) Did you even read the CNN article that you linked to? If so, you would see that it doesn’t say anything remotely like what you claim it says. It says the exact opposite. Let me quote: RNC chairman Reince Priebus sent an open letter to NBC News chairman Andrew Lack on Friday declaring that they are “suspending the partnership” because the CNBC debate had been conducted “in bad faith.” “While debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates’ visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC’s moderators engaged in a series of ‘gotcha’ questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates,” Priebus wrote, echoing the complaints lodged by many candidates. “What took place Wednesday night was not an attempt to give the American people a greater understanding of our candidates’ policies and ideas,” Priebus added. So as you can see, it does not say that the Republicans want “softballs” or are afraid of “fastballs”. It says the opposite, namely that the RNC wants more substantive questions, a stance with which I agree. CNBC asked about fantasy football. There are more important topics that should be covered at presidential debates. If CNBC won’t ask about them, then it’s a good thing for the RNC to look for a venue that will. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/14 "2015-10-31T02:56:15Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > So I guess all that stuff about free speech, the First Amendment, a free press and liberty are all just so much chin-wagging when it comes to being able to ask Republicans tough questions…I still want to know what happened to all those Republican values about Freedom and Liberty™ and why they think it shouldn’t apply to the media where it’s the most important of all. The First Amendment says that the government cannot regulate or ban speech. It does not say put any limits at all on an organization such as the RNC. To say that the RNC refusing to continue working with a band of idiots like the CNBC moderators is against the First Amendment or against the principle free speech displays a childish misunderstanding of what free speech means. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/15 "2015-10-31T02:56:31Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Did you even read the CNN article that you linked to? If so, you would see that it doesn’t say anything remotely like what you claim it says. It says the exact opposite. Let me quote: > RNC chairman Reince Priebus sent an open letter to NBC News chairman Andrew Lack on Friday declaring that they are “suspending the partnership” because the CNBC debate had been conducted “in bad faith.” > > “While debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates’ visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC’s moderators engaged in a series of ‘gotcha’ questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates,” Priebus wrote, echoing the complaints lodged by many candidates. > “What took place Wednesday night was not an attempt to give the American people a greater understanding of our candidates’ policies and ideas,” Priebus added. > > So as you can see, it does not say that the Republicans want “softballs” or are afraid of “fastballs”. It says the opposite, namely that the RNC wants more substantive questions, a stance with which I agree. CNBC asked about fantasy football. There are more important topics that should be covered at presidential debates. If CNBC won’t ask about them, then it’s a good thing for the RNC to look for a venue that will. We read what they said…and we know what they actually want. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/16 "2015-10-31T03:01:27Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > We read what they said…and we know what they actually want. And what do you think they actually want? Do you have any evidence? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/17 "2015-10-31T05:49:26Z")
Well, the advertising, for one. Who does CNBC reach for, me? I see pocket fisherman ads, and ads for beer and that same damn veggie chopping device they been selling for a hundred years now. On CNBC, ads for shiny happy MBA’s, gonna enhance my portfolio, manage my wealth. Like that fake ad at the beginning of _Wolf of Wall Street_. Ads for cars that cost more than the entire place I live. I’m thinking that given their preferred population to pander, they aren’t likely to look for new and interesting ways to piss off Republicans. Call it a hunch. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/18 "2015-10-31T06:15:03Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > And what do you think they actually want? Do you have any evidence? How about an example of one of the questions the RNC is claiming was a “gotcha”? ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/19 "2015-10-31T06:15:18Z")
The performance of the CNBC moderators has been roundly criticized by other media. This isn’t just the GOP bitching and moaning that they weren’t getting softballs. The [New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/arts/television/debate-devolved-into-gop-vs-cnbc-and-the-network-lost.html) used phrases such “simultaneously aggressive and underprepared,” and noted that the moderators “got derailed with trivia, needless fighting and good-in-theory questions with botched execution.” Not the description you want for your moderators if you are hosting a presidential primary debate. The [Boston Globe](https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/10/28/the-biggest-loser-cnbc-republican-debate-the-media/qoTnfU0XxAdmcnvTvDOJLJ/story.html) wrote that the moderators were “smarmy” and had an “animus”. Not good for CNBC. [ThinkProgress](http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/28/3717186/cnbc-debate-moderators-yelling/) called the debate a “total trainwreck” and quoted multiple tweets from journalists roundly criticizing the moderators as “crashing and burning” and said they are “just the worst”. Seriously, a well run debate would have given the opportunity to have tough questions posted to the panel and we might have seen a couple of candidates do their own face plant as they crashed and burned. Instead the CNBC moderators gave a poor performance that opened themselves up to being a unifying point for criticism. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213/20 "2015-10-31T06:17:55Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > The First Amendment says that the government cannot regulate or ban speech. It does not say put any limits at all on an organization such as the RNC. To say that the RNC refusing to continue working with a band of idiots like the CNBC moderators is against the First Amendment or against the principle free speech displays a childish misunderstanding of what free speech means. I’m aware of that. But the First Amendment has been gradually expanded to broader meanings in the context of state laws and other political contexts as a supposed pillar of liberty. I always hear about it when some right-wing rabble-rouser is banned by a university administration from a speaking engagement on campus. The right-wingers come out in droves crying bloody murder and waving copies of the Constitution. Is that also a childish misunderstanding of what free speech means? Or how about referring to the CNBC moderators as “a band of idiots”? As I see it, they were in a legitimately adversarial relationship with the candidates – that’s why it’s called a “debate”, it’s not really a debate among the candidates, but between the candidates and the panel of questioners. I have yet to hear of a question that wasn’t legitimate (I didn’t see the actual debate) but I do acknowledge that there seemed to be unnecessary hostility and snark in the way some of the questions were worded. The RNC has a point in that regard. But the overreaction to this by the RNC creates a real and tangible risk that future debates will be over-cautious and toned down and the candidates will escape some of the challenges that they really need to answer to. This isn’t supposed to be a love-fest. The RNC claim that they want a “substantive” discussion is complete bullshit because they’d be delighted if their candidates just stood around for two hours getting praise heaped on them with a few softball questions and absolutely zero information exchanged. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-debate-suspended-over-gotcha-questions-per-rnc/736213.md?page=2)