CNN broadcast Thursday trailer For the second GOP primary debate in California on September 16th, it has been announced that once again the lower-ranked candidates will be allowed into the debate, which will begin hours before the main event.
The top 10 candidates in popular polls from July 16 to September 10 will participate in the primetime debate, which will air at 9:00 PM ET. The remaining candidates, those who have registered at least one percent in three national polls, will appear in an earlier debate at 6 a.m. ET.
The time between the two debates is especially problematic for a candidate like Carly Fiorina, who did well in the previous Fox News debate (which was four hours before the main debate) and is eager to make it to the main stage. second round. (A CNN spokesperson noted some differences between the Fox and CNN debates, including that both the 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. debates will be moderated by the same hosts, will be in front of a live audience, and will have “a short break between the two segments”).
Fiorina He argues that the Republican National Committee should be doing more to ensure that the debate round represents the true top 10 candidates. According to him, the problem is that CNN did not pay much attention to the polls conducted before the first debate. Fiorina started to rise in the polls after the first debate, but it’s unlikely that enough polls were taken or that Fiorina’s surge was strong enough to push her into the top ten.
If the debate were held today, the candidates would be at 21:00. debates are Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, John Kasich and Chris Christie. Those at 6 p.m. debate will be Rick Perry, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, George Pataki and Lindsey Graham.
UPDATED (22:15):
In a statement, a CNN spokesperson said the debate criteria will not be adjusted according to FEC rules, but the network believes they are fair.
“CNN released the criteria for the CNN-Reagan Library debate on May 20. It will include polling data from three weeks before and five weeks after the first debate. Federal Election Commission guidelines make it clear that these criteria cannot be changed once they are changed. “We believe our approach is the fairest and most effective way to deal with the largest number of candidates we’ve ever encountered,” the spokesperson said.
This post has been updated with a statement from a CNN spokesperson regarding the criteria and set-up of the debate.