Republican Party head rages against 'crap sandwich' CNBC debate
Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee's chairman, even called the debate a "crap sandwich" during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.
"I just can't tell you how pissed off I am," Priebus said. "It was a insanity. I mean just sitting there, seething through this thing … thinking about hitting the circuit breaker in the auditorium - it crossed my mind."
Priebus and many of the Republican candidates complained bitterly about how the CNBC debate was conducted on Wednesday.
Even some of the candidates that performed well slammed the debate questions using words like "biased" and "irritating" because they felt like part of an aggressive interview rather than an economic-policy discussion. The first question to real-estate mogul Donald Trump was about whether he was running a "comic-book" presidential campaign, for example.
CNBC defended the questions amid the Republican criticism following the debate.
"People who want to be president of the United States should be able to answer tough questions," CNBC spokesman Brian Steel told Business Insider.
But Priebus was clearly left unsatisfied.
"Obviously we had assurances that it was going to be straight-up finance, which is what they do every day. And what was delivered was just nothing but a crap sandwich," he told Hannity on Thursday. "I guarantee you we're going to make sure that CNBC isn't hosting and moderating another debate with our candidates."
Some of the Republican candidates are reportedly discussing the possibility of banding together to pressure future debates to adopt a more favorable format.
Watch Priebus' 'Hannity' interview below:
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