Bad behavior should not be rewarded. The push is on from television networks and cable news channels to partner with the RNC to host Republican primary debates. The answer from Ronna McDaniel and the RNC must be no to any outlet other than conservative-leaning ones. Why would Republicans want to debate on networks that are openly unfriendly to them?

Why is anyone talking about primary debates right now when the election is so far off? The first debate will be in August and that is less than two months away. I know. We are in the hustle and bustle of primary season whether we like it or not. It’s here. We are seeing the field of candidates come together and it will likely get a little bigger before it’s all done. Then the weeding out starts. How many will survive the first debate?

There is no pretense of fairness in political news coverage anymore. The first GOP primary debate has been given to Fox and that is reasonable. Rumble is partnering with Fox for the first debate. It is a conservative alternative to YouTube. Axios is reporting that the legacy networks – the dinosaur alphabet networks – have submitted bids to the RNC.

The RNC wants as large of an audience to hear from the candidates as possible, of course, but how many voters does anyone think will be won over on MSNBC, for example? I’d argue that even CNN audiences are unlikely to be swayable. The network itself has been generally hostile toward Republicans for a long time, and it really went out of control during the Trump years.

CNN is already doing town halls with Republican primary candidates. The first was with Trump and it was a huge ratings success for the flailing cable network. No Republicans thought that Kaitlan Collins was fair and balanced, though, as the town hall host. She mostly wanted to talk about January 6, 2021, the 2020 election, the classified documents, and E. Jean Carroll. The questions about E. Jean Carroll might have been considered timely due to the fact that Trump was unanimously found liable for sexual abuse and battery against her in the mid-1990s, and for defaming her in 2022. She has two more defamation lawsuits against Trump that are pending. One of those is from 2019, the other is from the CNN town hall. Rumor is that she is being encouraged to sue Trump by certain NeverTrumpers. That tracks.

This morning on CNN, Michael Smerconish is dwelling on how DeSantis pronounces his last name and the attack Trump is making about his name.

Sunday night Nikki Haley will be the second primary candidate to do a town hall on CNN. It will be with Jake Tapper as host and it will take place in Iowa. Then Mike Pence will do a town hall on Wednesday night. If individual candidates choose to use various networks, friendly or not, to get their message out, that’s their decision. However, for the RNC to partner with any of them for debate coverage is not a good idea.

CNN wants to make a deal.

CNN boss Chris Licht has told the RNC that CNN would air the debate not just on its linear feed, but also potentially on the linear networks of other Warner Bros. Discovery channels, two sources told Axios. By including those channels, Licht has argued, CNN could reach more conservatives than Fox, as well as independent voters.

CNN’s pitch also includes distribution across its digital channels, and possibly streaming.

Licht also has offered to partner with a conservative-leaning outlet on the debates. That partnership, two sources told Axios, could include giving a journalist from the partner outlet a co-moderator spot.

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt has been helping in his network’s bid. He would moderate the debate for NBC, alongside a colleague from sister networks CNBC and Telemundo.

Holt, sources say, helped lobby the RNC for the bid, appeared at the RNC in February and began the presentation with an NBC sizzle reel.

A source in the room said NBC News pitched distribution across NBC News, MSNBC, Telemundo, CNBC, its streaming service NBC News Now and its digital channels.

NBC News and Holt were pushing the RNC to consider its bid at the same time longtime MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell acknowledged using “imprecise” language in a question to Vice President Harris that implied DeSantis didn’t want slavery taught in schools. DeSantis said he would boycott NBC News and MSNBC in response.

The only answer to Andrea Mitchell anywhere near a Republican primary debate stage is hell no. Her lie about DeSantis’ record was no mistake.

Ronna McDaniel said she is moving away from partnering with Big Tech and that is smart. They are all in the tank for Democrats, as we’ve seen through past investigations. All of them shut down coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story, for example, to help Biden win the 2020 election. The story broke by the NY Post was not “disinformation” or “misinformation” by Russian operatives. The NY Post was vindicated and yet all of the outlets who censored the story continue to go along on their merry way. Talk about a threat to democracy. They actively worked to move the presidential election to Biden’s benefit.

Trump has not agreed to do any debates yet, including the first one on Fox. He doesn’t think he should have to do debates because he is so far ahead in polls now. That will likely change, though, and he has to earn votes like any other candidate. This isn’t a coronation. He isn’t completely turned off by Fox since some of his friends are still there. He did a town hall with Sean Hannity this week during Hannity’s time slot. Hannity stretched it out for two nights.

DeSantis told Glenn Beck last week, according to Axios, that “corporate media…shouldn’t be involved in our process because they’re hostile to us as Republicans.” No argument from me.

During the last few presidential election cycles, Republicans have tuned into debates hosted on a variety of networks and channels outside of what little conservative-leaning media is available. Every time, Republicans ask why we do it. Why use liberal media and then complain afterward about what was completely predictable? Fox has the biggest audience on any given night. Every demographic watches Fox, whether it is because they approve of the cable news coverage and the opinion-based primetime shows or they are keeping up with what conservatives are up to. You know, the reason a conservative would tune into CNN – to see what the other side is doing.

Maybe this will be the cycle that the RNC gets a backbone and just says no to hostile hosts. The DNC doesn’t schedule debates on Fox. The DNC isn’t even doing any primary debates this time. They are just handing the nomination to an 80-year-old man who is too feeble and frail to do the job but he has a ‘D’ by his name and that’s good enough.