The RNC (Republican National Committee) is saying it plans to make a significant change heading into the 2024 election. That would “prohibit” Republican nominees from participating in debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, according to a letter sent by the RNC and obtained by ABC News.

RNC and Commission’s Handling of Presidential Debates

There are longstanding criticisms from Republicans. It goes over the commission’s handling of presidential debates. It does culminate in former President Donald Trump who is skipping the second out of the three originally scheduled debates in the 2020 election. This is against President Joe Biden. Moreover, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel has, in fact, called for the changes to be made to the commission last June.

Dated Thursday, the letter was signed by McDaniel. It did outline the communication between the RNC and CPD over the past year. It was regarding the concerns about the CPD’s ability to “provide what is a fair and impartial forum for presidential debates, propose reforms to address these concerns.”

The CPD must address its “failures,” the RNC has said. That is if the organization does wish to have credibility within the Republican Party. It would include adopting term limits for its board of directors. Also to commit to holding at least one debate. That would be before the start of early voting. Then establish transparent criteria for selecting debate moderators.

The chairman of the CPD, Frank Fahrenkopf, has said he met with the RNC. Thus try to convey to the commission does work with parties, only candidates. “Also, they do want to take over everything. In fact, we have told them that we do not want to deal with the political parties. We never have,” Fahrenkopf said. “Also, we have nothing to do with the Republican, Democratic party, or any other political party. Moreover, we will only work with those candidates for president and the vice president who do meet the requirements that we can, in fact, put out a year or so ahead of time.”