RNC to NBC, CNN: We're Not Bluffing on Debate Threats

Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) communications director, said the RNC was not bluffing by threatening not to partner with CNN and NBC on Republican presidential primary debates leading up to the 2016 elections if both networks air planned movies about Hillary Clinton. 

Spicer said a resolution has been drafted and the vote “will happen” next Friday in Boston at the RNC’s summer meeting if CNN and NBC have not responded by then.

“You air the documentary, we don’t do it,” Spicer said while appearing on The Wilkow Majority on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 with guest host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon Friday. “It’s a very simple conversation to understand.”

This week, Breitbart News first reported that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus wrote letters to CNN and NBC demanding the networks pull the planned Hillary Clinton movies if they wanted to moderate presidential debates in partnership with the RNC. State Republican parties in the early primary states of Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire are also on board, so the networks will not be able to go around the RNC with state GOP organizations during the 2016 election cycle.

CNN has told the RNC to “reserve judgment” on the Hillary Clinton movie, while NBC, less than two days before reports indicated actor Alec Baldwin would host a weekly primetime show on MSNBC, has claimed its political division is separate from the network’s entertainment division.

Spicer emphasized that Hollywood and the mainstream press never greenlight political movies that are unfavorable to Democrats or favorable to Republicans, so the Hillary Clinton movies will favorably portray the potential 2016 presidential candidate.

Earlier this week, Spicer indicated that the networks wanted to air the movies before Clinton potentially formally announces a 2016 presidential run so they can steer clear of “equal time” requirements. That, Spicer said, was a clear indication that both networks were thinking of the political ramifications of the movies.

He also argued earlier in the week that the mainstream media’s response to the Hillary Clinton movies shows their hypocrisy, especially because most of the same media figures did not criticize Democrats when they boycotted a Fox News debate leading up the 2008 presidential election.