The Republican National Committee has decided to terminate a debate partnership with National Review after the magazine issued in its newest number a ton of reasons on why Donald Trump shouldn’t be the GOP’s nominee, says The Washington Post.
Not a surprising decision
National Review wasn’t surprised by this decision and publisher Jack Fowler wrote on a blog Thursday night the magazine’s position on the situation. “Small price to pay for speaking the truth about The Donald”, said Fowler, according to the same source. After the Republican National Committee has decided to put an end to this partnership, only CNN, Salem Radio, and Telemundo are left as the co-sponsors of the planned February 25 forum in Houston.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus had the idea to bring into the “game” conservative media, following the 2012 Presidential election, when Mitt Romney was dragged into an undesired media “show”. “I mean, there’s a lot of good people out there that can actually understand the base of the Republican Party, the primary voters. There are some people in our party that think that — you know, on immigration, have different views. On the issue of tactics, on the funding of Obamacare — I mean you can very easily parse that out in a way that actually provides some substance to the Republican primary voters and what they actually want to talk about and understand.”, Priebus told Fox News in 2013.
The liberty of having a personal opinion is the most important
National Review’s editor-in-chief Rich Lowry said on Friday morning that the magazine had to make its opinion known with all costs, and the Republican National Committee’s decision is not surprising.
“We priced it in. We wanted to push back against this notion that it was just the establishment that was opposed to Trump, so we assembled this group of people who nobody can accuse of being the establishment. We actually wanted this to be the first issue of the year, but we held it. That timing just turned out to be fortuitous, with the establishment parts of the party suddenly bending his way.”, said Lowry, according to The Washington Post.
In 2012, after Romney’s defeat, the former RNC research director David Welch shouted out for strong conservative voices. “We need officials like former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey”, said Welch back then. Although both Bush and Christie are behind Trump, it seems like the businessman is not the strong conservative voice that National Review was looking for.
Trump had something to say, like expected
Of course, Donald Trump reacted on Twitter, where he said that the National Review’s founder, William F. Buckley, would be very dissapointed by the magaine’s position. “National Review is a failing publication that has lost it’s way. It’s circulation is way down w its influence being at an all time low. Sad! The late, great, William F. Buckley would be ashamed of what had happened to his prize, the dying National Review!”, posted Trump on his social media account, according to The Washington Post.
