ABC News Announces Criteria For New Hampshire Republican Debate

The New Hampshire Union Leader announced Tuesday that it will partner with MSNBC to host a Democratic debate on February 4 – five days before the state’s crucial presidential primary. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have confirmed whether they would take part.

Thanks to tremendous grassroots pressure, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has finally agreed to add an additional presidential candidate forum on Monday night in Iowa, just a week out from the caucuses. Four debates have been conducted, but the next DNC debate doesn’t come until February 11.

AM 820 News Commentator and political strategist Barry Edwards discusses the DNC, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Hillary Clinton, Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump. Joseph McQuaid, the publisher of the Union Leader, said it would be the first time in 32 years that the people of the Granite State would not have a Democratic debate before heading to the polls. It’s better than nothing, but there’s no good reason why we shouldn’t be having this as a formal debate where they can be on stage together. Moderators would be NBC News’ Chuck Todd and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

DNC rules stipulate that any candidate who participates in an unsanctioned debate forfeits the opportunity to attend contests sanctioned by the party. “Our historic first-in-the-nation primary will benefit immensely from a final, prime-time reckoning between the three candidates”.

Our October debate in Nevada set a Democratic primary record with 15.8 million viewers, the sixth-biggest non-sport cable broadcast in US history, while our most recent debate on NBC was the third highest-rated debate in Democratic primary history with 12.5 million viewers including broadcast and online streaming. Calls for more debates have been, for the most part, ignored. “They’ve got a reality TV show going on the other side of the aisle, and we have a substantive and robust discussion about how to build on the progress that we’ve made”, Wasserman Schultz said.