RNC Bails On NBC's Scheduled GOP Debate

NBC better get its fill of Donald Trump when he hosts Saturday Night Live next month because it sounds like the network won't be seeing him—or any of his fellow candidates—at its GOP debate, the Hill reports. The Republican National Committee has suspended ties with NBC ahead of the network's scheduled Feb. 26 debate over continuing anger about how this week's debate on CNBC was handled. "CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith," RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to NBC Friday. Priebus characterized the CNBC debate as petty, mean-spirited, and purposefully embarrassing for the candidates.

"CNBC billed the debate as one that would focus on 'the key issues that matter to all voters—job growth, taxes, technology, retirement, and the health of our national economy,'" Priebus writes in the letter. Instead, he says CNBC focused on "gotcha" questions that were "inaccurate or downright offensive." The RNC still plans on holding a debate Feb. 26 and will partner with the conservative National Review, which was already a co-host of the original debate. It's not clear whether it would be televised. Politico notes that the "relationship between the two organizations is not necessarily dead," and NBC promised to "work in good faith to resolve this matter." The announcement comes on the heels of news that individual campaigns were planning to meet this weekend to discuss a "revolt" against debate hosts and the RNC itself. (More GOP primary stories.)