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Archives for August 2015

A WHCInsider/Trail Talk Podcast Exclusive With Rubio’s Todd Harris

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Todd Harris, Marco Rubio Campaign Senior Adviser, gave an exclusive interview to Betsy Fischer Martin in Spin Alley following the first Republican presidential debate.

He was pleased with Rubio’s performance: “Only one candidate who had a positive vision for the future.”

He did not think Rubio should have gone after Donald Trump saying this election is about a “conversation between candidates and primary voters.”

Harris, a veteran campaign strategist, commented that he would have advised Trump to come to the debate with more substantive answers.

Q & A with Governor Bobby Jindal after the GOP Presidential Debate

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GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL: Hey how are you?

BETSY FISCHER MARTIN: What question would you ask Jeb Bush tonight?

JINDAL: I would ask him why he thinks we need to abandon our principles – why not instead embrace our principles. Why would he advocate doing that when it hasn’t worked before for the party? He said you have to be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general – that hasn’t worked. Why does he think it would actually work? Why does he think it’s smart to double down on amnesty and why does he think we need to hide our conservative beliefs – when it seems to me that voters are looking for a real alternative to this president and his path toward socialism.

BFM: And what about Trump – do you have a question for him?

JINDAL: I’ll let the moderators…maybe I shouldn’t have answered your first question. (laughter) I am sure the Fox moderators are more than capable of coming up with great questions. I’ll say this about Trump: He has tapped in folk’s frustration with political correctness. I think that the donors and party leaders in DC need to put down sharp objects, get away from the windows, they need to calm down. The reality is the American voters will pick our nominee and our president — not the donors not the party leaders — and the more they attack him, the more they strengthen him. The reality is that he has tapped into the frustration that people have with political correctness. At the end of the day, I think I am going to the be nominee and I am going to be the next president because I have that bandwidth and that backbone that voters are looking for. And any attempt to try to clear the field or appoint a candidate is going to backfire. I think that donors and party leaders just need to take a deep deep breath, relax, it’s summer – there is a long way to go in this process.

BFM: Thanks, Bobby.

Dems Announce Debate Schedule, Stepping on Tonight’s GOP Debate

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Hours away from the first Republican debate, the Democratic National Committee announced its long-awaited debate schedule for its own candidates, which will include six debates ranging from October to March.

CNN will host the first debate on October 13 in Nevada, one of the four early primary states. The second debate will take place in Iowa in early November with CBS News, The Des Moines Register and KCCI as hosts, which will be followed by a Christmas showdown in New Hampshire on December 19 by ABC News/WMUR.

NBC News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute will host the fourth debate on January 17 in South Carolina. Tensions and excitement will be at a peak during this event, as it is the final debate before the state nomination season officially begins with the Iowa caucuses on February 1 and the New Hampshire primary on February 9. Finally, there will be two debates hosted sometime in February and March. One will be hosted by Univision and the Washington Post in Miami, Florida and the other in Wisconsin by PBS.

There are currently five Democratic candidates pursuing the nomination: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee. However, the DNC welcomes any new candidate who wishes to enter the race, as long as they meet the criteria of receiving at least 1% in three national polls in the six weeks leading up to the debate.

The Weekly Standard reports that insurgent Governor Martin O’Malley is already complaining about the new schedule.

RNC’s Sean Spicer: “DNC buried their debate announcement today”

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In an interview with WHCInsider.com before the first debate featuring GOP presidential candidates in the 2016 election, the Republican National Committee’s Sean Spicer gave a preview of what to expect at the largest debate in primary history when 17 candidates take the stage.

Spicer also commented on the timing of the Democrat’s debate announcement today. “They’ve got a lot of concern within their own party…with what the DNC has done to help Hillary Clinton out. I think they tried to bury this today for obvious reasons.”

When asked about the additional debate added for candidates who didn’t make the cut for the main debate: “It wasn’t our decision. We had talked to both Fox and CNN about how to be really inclusive in both of the early debates because of the historic number of quality candidates that we had in our field. Fox and CNN said they were going to try and figure out a way to do that.”

Spicer noted that close to 5,000 people will be in attendance, “probably the largest debate audience in history. Folks from Ohio, Republican supporters, friends and family of the candidates. It’s kind of a cross-section.” Audience members will not be allowed to ask questions.

GOP Debate Surprise: Aerosmith​ will be in the audience tonight!

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Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler with Tammy Haddad

Aerosmith frontman, Steven Tyler, was spotted in Cleveland on the eve of the first GOP candidate debate of the 2016 presidential election. When asked if Tyler would be able to get a seat in the debate audience tonight, RNC’s Sean Spicer confirmed that “he doesn’t have to worry, he has a ticket and the rest of Aerosmith does as well.”

More from WaPo’s Reliable Source: Aerosmith scored tickets to GOP presidential debate

Countdown to the Republican presidential debate

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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.