The first debate of the 2016 election cycle will take place Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio. Hosted by Fox News, this highly anticipated event will feature the top 10 Republican presidential candidates according to an average of the last five national polls released before 5 pm on Tuesday. The debate will be hosted by Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace.
Before any candidates have set foot on stage, controversy has already surrounded the debate due to the process being used by Fox News for selecting which candidates will be allowed to participate. The New York Times has predicted which candidates they believe will make the cut. “Donald Trump sits atop the polling average — and has in fact widened his lead over the field — with Jeb Bush and Scott Walker close behind. A handful of other candidates — Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz — occupy a third tier, with a small amount of support but seemingly enough to make the cutoff.” However, “Fox, which is working with Facebook and the Ohio Republican Party to run the debate, has outlined its rules but has declined to go into precise detail, making it difficult to predict who exactly will be on stage.”
Not all is lost for the candidates who don’t make the top 10. The bottom seven candidates will have a shot at airtime during an earlier debate on Fox News, although that event is expected to have significantly lower viewership. According to CNN’s analysis, “at the bottom of the pack, registering less than 2 percent of support in recent polls, are Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former business executive Carly Fiorina and former New York Gov. George Pataki, all of whom have little chance of squeaking into the debate. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who only last week joined the crop of contenders, has failed to register 1% of support in the recent polls in which he was included.”
Fox News’ Bret Baier was interviewed by Northeast Ohio Media Group about how he plans to moderate Thursday’s debate. “What I’m looking for and what we all are looking for is something that’s interesting, but illuminating. And that maybe not what you hear on the stump from candidates. So, we’ve been working all the anchors, moderators, to structure these questions in a way that they’re hard, they’re pointed, they’re fair, but it gets them off their talking points.”
All candidates were invited to a “Voters First Republican Presidential Forum” on the campus of St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire on the Monday prior to the debate. The candidates appeared one at a time, answering questions determined by the editors of the Union Leader based on the topics suggested by the public. This event was broadcast on C-SPAN.
The 2016 Republican presidential debate will air at 9 pm ET on Thursday, August 6, 2015 on Fox News.