Newscasters from a left-leaning news network once again moderated the third Republican presidential debate.
Lester Holt, Kristen Welker, and Hugh Hewitt from the liberal NBC News moderated the third GOP debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida.
Holt is the anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” and Welker is the moderator of “Meet the Press.” Hewitt, meanwhile, hosts a morning talk show for the Salem Radio Network, which was also a co-sponsor of the debate.
Five contenders so far have met the increasingly stricter conditions set by the Republican National Committee (RNC) in order to participate in the debate.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have all qualified, as has the current frontrunner, former President Donald Trump — who once again skipped the debate in favor of holding his own rally in nearby Hialeah.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence still needs to reach the $70,000 donor threshold in order to participate in the debates. According to POLITICO, South Carolina Tim Scott has not yet met any requirements, despite claims from his campaign saying otherwise.
The recent Republican debates have been the subject of criticism due to them being mainly hosted by liberal mainstream news outlets such as NBC and CNN, which Ramaswamy took issue with.
“We’ve become a party of losers at the end of the day. Is it cancer? The Republican establishment, let’s speak the truth,” Ramaswamy said in an earlier debate. “I mean, since Ronna McDaniel took over as chairwoman of the RNC in 2017, we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022. No red wave ever came. We got trounced last night in 2023. And I think that we have to have accountability in our party for that matter.”
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel has since clapped back at Ramaswamy’s claims, arguing he “needs a headline” to make up for low polling.
“Listen, he’s at — he’s at 4 percent. He needs a headline,” McDaniel said. “Now, the RNC doesn’t do state races. We’re a federal committee, so we weren’t involved in those races on Tuesday. I know Vivek’s kind of newer to the party. He voted for Obama, so he may not know that.”
