Santorum rips ‘arbitrary’ rules for Fox News’ GOP debate
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) criticized Fox News for setting “arbitrary” qualifications to participate in the network’s Republican White House debate, saying the rules could prevent candidates from reaching voters.
“I’m someone who believes that we should have an inclusive process,” Santorum told reporters Thursday after his speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City, according to BBC News.
“If you’re a United States senator, if you’re a governor, if you’re a woman who has run a Fortune 500 company, and you’re running a legitimate campaign for president, then you should have the right to be on the stage with everyone else,” he said.
{mosads}Fox News announced Wednesday it would require all admitted contenders to place in the top 10 in the average of the five most recent national polls heading into the Aug. 6 event in Cleveland.
Candidates who didn’t reach the threshold to participate in the debate would receive additional coverage and airtime the day of the debate, the news channel added.
Santorum argued his failed 2012 presidential bid offered proof for why that approach could unfairly miss worthwhile candidates.
“In January of 2012, I was at 4 percent in the national polls, and I won the Iowa caucuses,” he said. “I was pretty close to last.”
“The idea that someone at 11.5 percent is in and someone out at 11.4 percent is out — that to me is not a rational way, particularly given the fact that they’re using national polls, which isn’t a legitimate way, in my opinion, to determine the viability of a candidate,” said Santorum, a possible 2016 GOP presidential contender.
“It has nothing to do with the candidates,” he added.
“It has to do with the American people,” Santorum said. “What’s fair to them is to be able to see some really sharp people who, at this point, are almost decidedly not going to be in it, unless things change.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) has struggled over how it should handle its field of 2016 hopefuls, the largest in recent memory.
As many as 20 Republicans have expressed interest in the Oval Office.
CNN announced Wednesday it would divide its Sept. 16 debate into two heats as its solution to the problem.
One heat would include the top 10 candidates in polls, while the other would include everyone else receiving at least 1 percent or more in public support.
The network added it would require candidates to have visited and employed at least one paid campaign aide in two of the four early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson challenged the RNC to include him and other nontraditional candidates in its primary debates.
“Limiting participation of qualified candidates on this reasoning, I believe, does our party a tremendous disservice,” Carson wrote to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in a May 15 email, which was released by his campaign.
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