Fox Plans Second-Tier Debate In Response To Threat From N.H. Newspaper
Fox News has changed its plan for the first Republican presidential debate to give second-tier candidates some airtime after a New Hampshire newspaper announced its own competing forum for B-list contenders.
According to plans announced late Wednesday, Fox now will host a 90-minute televised forum in Cleveland on the afternoon of August 6 for Republican candidates who fail to qualify for that evening's 90-minute debate.
RNC officials and campaign staffers had been pressuring Fox for weeks to do exactly this, some even predicting that the vacuum would be filled by another media outlet. A Fox spokeswoman challenged the notion that Fox had changed its plans, saying the cable network always intended to cover the candidates who did not make the prime-time cut.
The announcement capped a chaotic three-hour stretch that began when the New Hampshire Union-Leader published a story announcing it would host a forum on August 6.
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