Power Grab…Again
Leave it to the Republican National Committee to make a bad situation even worse.
We’ve already talked about their takeover of the candidates, mandating silly rules for so-called debates and requiring all manner of loyalty oaths. One of those provisions says the officially-sanctioned RNC events are the only ones a candidate can participate in…and violating that mandate means a candidate is disqualified from future RNC events.
Given how poorly those debates have gone, being banned from them might not be a bad thing.
Regardless, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy were invited to do a joint appearance with Bret Baier on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” program. But not so fast, said the RNC…which effectively blocked the appearance because even though it wasn’t a debate, it was a way for them to each get their messages out without party regulation, and that just wouldn’t do for the power-hungry RNC. They threatened to block both Christie and Ramaswamy from future official debates if they did the Fox appearance…so instead of an actual conversation about issues, each will be in a vacuum in separate segments.
Meanwhile, now Ron DeSantis says the official debates are bad, and he wants stricter rules for qualifying…ones which coincidentally would drop a number of folks from the state, potentially leaving him and Donald Trump as the only qualifiers. The Ramaswamy campaign independently asked the RNC to stiffen the rules for qualifying as well, to the top four in polling plus Trump.
At the same time, Team Trump is calling for the RNC to cancel any future debates so voters can focus on supporting him against Joe Biden.
So much of this is silly…especially for those who want to stiffen the rules. That’s because under the current rules, only DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley would qualify for the stage in Miami next month…well, in addition to Trump, who says he’s not participating.
Ramaswamy, after his joint appearance with Christie was scotched by the RNC, said, “This is what a brokered and rigged nomination process looks like.” Christie said, “When the RNC stops conversations between candidates from happening, that is a real cause for concern.”
Yep. That swamp is pretty wide and deep, on both sides.
