I’m looking for a factual answer here, not a debate on its merits.
Can the GOP Leadership ban Donald Trump from speaking at the upcoming presidential debate, regardless of his poll numbers, assuming that they really wanted to? They can certainly ban Bernie Sanders from speaking at the GOP debate, not that he would ever want to.
I assume they can make up whatever rules they want considering it’s their debate…
Are they the ones in charge of the debate?
Fox is sponsoring it, and makes the rules.
So if Fox wanted Bernie Sanders up there, they would just have to make room for him. I would presume that Fox has no reason to pull Trump from the debates(and very good monetary reasons to keep him in).
There was some suggestion kicking around that the other candidates might boycott the debate if Trump is on the stage, but I haven’t seen much mention of that lately. I guess the idea didn’t get any traction. If that were to happen (meaning, a credible threat in advance of the actual debate night), I wonder what Fox and/or the Party would be able to do about it.
ETA: Example cite: GOP establishment’s dumbest idea: Boycott the debates until Trump is kicked out!, Jim Newell, Salon, July 23, 2015.
When you say “GOP Leadership”, who are you referring to? IMHO there is no one in the wheelhouse - if there were, we would see a more cohesive message and only a few, hand-picked and polished candidates who are serious about running, winning, and governing.
As stated - Fox is calling the shots, and Trump is likely to boost viewership, especially with Democrats who will be grabbing the popcorn.
In this vein, will the first debate be streamed online? Or is actually watching Fox the only way to view the dabate?