NBC News announced Wednesday who has been chosen to moderate the third Republican primary debate of the 2024 presidential campaign, and the announcement immediately sent many conservatives to social media to decry the choices.
Last week, the Republican National Committee announced it was partnering with NBC News, among others, for the Nov. 8 debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.
“I am eager to announce that the RNC has selected NBC News, Salem Radio Network, the Republican Jewish Coalition, and Rumble as our partners for the third Republican primary debate in Miami,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
“The partners for our third debate will offer our candidates an excellent opportunity to meet the moment and contrast their plans and vision with the failures of the Biden White House,” she said.
Now we know left-wing NBC News hosts Lester Holt and Kirsten Welker will serve as moderators.
NEW: Kristen Welker and Lester Holt host the Republican presidential debate in Miami on Wednesday, November 8.
Tune in at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC and streaming on NBC News NOW. pic.twitter.com/SJINByHm0c
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 25, 2023
Holt has been the anchor of NBC Nightly News since June 2015, while Welker recently took over hosting duties for “Meet the Press” when Chuck Todd stepped down from the position.
Both were debate moderators during the 2020 election cycle.
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The pair will be joined by Hugh Hewitt, who is host of his eponymous radio talk show on the Salem Radio Network. He too has been a debate moderator.
According to Politico, five GOP candidates have qualified for the debate stage on Nov. 8: former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump once again will skip the debate, instead holding a rally in nearby Hialeah, Florida.
Other candidates have until Nov. 6 to meet the conditions to qualify for the debate.
Many conservatives wondered why the GOP agreed to have left-wingers ask the questions and moderate the conduct of Republican candidates.
RealClearPolitics founder Tom Bevan blasted the picks as “absolute insanity.”
Absolute insanity. pic.twitter.com/g11QedkCcR
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) October 26, 2023
The Nebraska Freedom Coalition accused the Republican National Committee and McDaniel of being members of the “uniparty” instead of being interested in conservative ideals.
Why do they allow this? The RNC and Ronna Romney are the epitome of the uniparty. What’s sad is they have state GOP organizations across the country that are just like them. Glad we were able to unseat our establishment state party.
— Nebraska Freedom Coalition (@NebraskaFreedom) October 26, 2023
Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist pointed out that Welker had “repeatedly and enthusiastically lied in defense of Democrats’ radical and barbaric abortion position” only a few weeks ago during her biased interview with Trump.
Interesting in particular since Kristen Welker repeatedly and enthusiastically lied in defense of Democrats’ radical and barbaric abortion position just a few weeks ago — during her one-on-one debate with Trump. https://t.co/I2XtWQXWI6
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 26, 2023
Indeed, Trump supporter Jack Posobiec reminded his followers that Welker played the Democratic mouthpiece during the 2020 presidential debate when she stopped Trump from talking about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Never forget that Kristen Welker cut off Trump when he started talking about the laptop in 2020. She’s a Democrat https://t.co/CHsrfjV60A
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 26, 2023
Others agreed that the choices were absurd.
I firmly believe candidates should do a lot of adversarial media, but this is a republican primary. The idea primary voters want to hear two hours of questions about January 6th and Trump(which this will be) is insane.
— a newsman (@a_newsman) October 26, 2023
Makes no sense
— J J Younger (@JJYounger2) October 26, 2023
Ronna McDaniel and McConnell must strategize weekly to discuss more ways to undermine the Republican base and prevent any attempts to fix our broken country.
— Kerry SR (@ilm_kerry) October 26, 2023
I can’t blame Trump for not participating
— Cristi Steel (@CristiSteel) October 26, 2023
It certainly seems to be a pattern for the GOP. Time and again, the RNC allows these media outlets to pick hostile parties to act as moderators for Republican debates. And yet the same left-wingers also preside over the Democratic debates. Indeed, the Democratic debates never feature a moderator who is moderate, much less one who is right of center.
It is astonishing that GOP leadership always seems to accept moderators whose goal is to help Democrats highlight the issues they want the GOP to answer to instead of the sorts of issues that Republican voters want their candidates to address.
