GOP candidates draft letter of debate demands

The 2016 Republican White House hopefuls have written a letter detailing their requests for upcoming presidential debates. 

The draft message was produced Monday morning by all 15 GOP presidential campaigns, according to a tweet from Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.

The letter includes a set of demands for the future debates, including opening and closing statements of at least 30 seconds for every participant.

Candidates also are asking for approval of candidate biographies and graphics used by host networks and are arguing against any lightning-round segments in future debates to prevent “gotcha moments.”

Breaking: @daveweigel and I have obtained the updated draft letter to the networks, finalized this morning pic.twitter.com/JsVHVKDS8O

— Robert Costa (@costareports) November 2, 2015

{mosads}“All the candidates recognize that robust debates are an important part of the primary elections,” the letter states.

“It is also important for that all debates be appropriate platforms for discussing substantive issues and the candidates’ vision for the future.”

The letter suggests that candidates may not take part in future debates if host networks do not agree to the demands. 

“The campaigns will use the manner in which debate(s) are run (and changes you say you will make from your past debates), the quality and fairness of your moderators’ questions, their enforcement of the rules and their ability to achieve parity in distribution and quality of the candidates to evaluate whether the candidates wish to participate in your future debates,” the draft message said.

Multiple GOP candidates have heavily criticized last week’s presidential debate, which CNBC hosted in Boulder, Colo.

The Republican National Committee announced Sunday that it is appointing a liaison for future cooperation between the candidates and news networks. Sean Cairncross, the RNC’s chief operating officer, will try to find common ground between both parties for future events.

The GOP’s next debate is scheduled for Nov. 10 in Milwaukee. Fox Business Network is broadcasting the event, which is slated to focus mainly on economic issues.