Breitbart: Candidates Sever RNC from Debate Negotiations

Republican presidential campaigns have agreed to cut the Republican National Committee out of the process of negotiating debates with networks, Breitbart News reports.

The agreement comes after the RNC attempted to remain a part of the process by naming a new pointman just a half hour before the confab among the campaigns began in Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.

Instead, campaigns will now handle such talks themselves and the RNC will handle only logistics, reports Breitbart, which quoted Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and an unnamed manager of another campaign.

The campaigns also want the networks to provide information such as earlier release of qualification criteria and "greater parity and greater integrity" in questions, Lewandowski said.

Also, the debates must last no more than two hours, including commercials, and must allow for at least 30 seconds of opening and closing statements.

Jeb Bush's campaign lost an effort to have the Spanish-language Telemundo reinstated. It was dropped along with NBC after the contentious CNBC debate last week that spurred the meeting. All three networks are owned by the same company.

Trump's campaign said he would boycott a Telemundo debate, as he has often clashed with that network.

Campaigns have traditionally negotiated about debates themselves, but RNC Chairman Reince Priebus changed that this year after Republicans went through an exhausting 20 debates in 2012 that many felt left the eventual nominee Mitt Romney beaten up.

Only nine debates were scheduled this year, and the CNBC debate was the third. The next scheduled debate is Nov. 10 on Fox Business Network, but Sunday's meeting leaves it unclear if that debate still will occur or how it might change if it does.

Related Stories:

• Carson's Camp Wants Fewer Debates, Streamed Over the Internet
• Bring Back Lincoln-Douglas Style Debates