Democratic National Committee Caves, Agrees to Added DEBATES, Feb. 1

- DNC CAVES, AGREES TO ADDED DEBATES -

Daily Kos, by Laura Clawson, Mon. Feb, 1, 2016

It took the Democratic National Committee around six months to give in to pressure, but give in it has: There will be more debates.
The Democratic National Committee said on Sunday that it would meet with the campaigns on Tuesday to further discuss details of additional debates before announcing an official schedule. A debate on Thursday, ahead of the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9, is expected to be sanctioned and sponsored by MSNBC, and the campaigns have been in talks about holding additional debates in March, April and May.

>PLUS there’s another town hall event on CNN on *Wednesday night.

All very well, but we didn’t need more debates so much as we needed the planned debates to be on weeknights rather than on holiday or holiday-adjacent weekends. Adding debates this late in the game—even by the already planned March 9 debate, 21 states plus American Samoa and Democrats Abroad will have voted, and by April 1 12 more states and the Marianas will have voted—is about half as useful as changing the dates of two or three earlier debates would have been.~

- DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz -


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Kudos to Bernie & Campaign Manager Jeff Weaver for requesting & negotiating more debates recently when approached about a Feb. event by the Clinton campaign. The minimalist democratic debate number & scheduling this year have damaged the exposure & campaigns of Bernie Sanders & Martin O'Malley. Several months ago the two candidates & some DNC staff began objecting to restrictions. We'll take it, even if the DNC's new change is long overdue. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/2/1/1478087/-Democratic-National-Committee-caves-agrees-to-added-debates