Neil Cavuto and the Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, will once again, host a GOP debate this Thursday. Rand Paul has promised not to participate, as he believes it is in error that he isn't on the main stage.
The participants qualifying for the prime-time, 9 p.m. ET debate are:
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The participants qualifying for the earlier, 6 p.m. ET debate are:
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; former HP CEO Carly Fiorina; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
However, the Paul campaign said Monday night it does not plan to participate.
This is the first time Paul has not qualified for a prime-time debate and his campaign, within minutes of the announcement, issued a statement complaining about the criteria.
“By any reasonable criteria Senator Paul has a top tier campaign,” his campaign said. “He will not let the media decide the tiers of this race and will instead take his message directly to the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa.”
Greta Van Susteren and Reince Priebus gush over the strength of the diverse Republican field. Priebus veered into some crazy talk and doomed Hillary Clinton's chances now that Bernie has caught up in Iowa and New Hampshire. Priebus professed his devotion to his job and said, if need be, he will back Donald Trump and coalesce the party around him. He predicts bad things for the Democrats.
PRIEBUS: Look at Hillary, her numbers are in a ditch. Yeah, we've got drama on our side of the aisle, but look at what's happened with Hillary Clinton, she's given us every opportunity to win this election and we're going to.
The Thursday debates will be held at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center in North Charleston, S.C.
Tune in for what is sure to be a busy night for fact checkers! In fact, if you play a drinking game that specifies that you take a drink every time they utter a fact, you will be dead sober. On the bright side, you can be the designated driver if you choose this game.
Anchor/Managing Editor of Business News Neil Cavuto and Anchor/Global Markets Editor Maria Bartiromo will moderate the prime-time debate; anchors Trish Regan and Sandra Smith will moderate the first debate.
Rumor has it that the secondary debate is not long for this world, especially after the first few caucus and primary contests. The debate field will shrink considerably after Iowa and New Hampshire.
