The first round of the Republican primary debates will be held Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The field of Republican presidential candidates stands at 17, but only 10 will be included in the primetime debate at 9pm ET, while the other seven will compete in an undercard debate at 5pm ET.
The 10 candidates who will appear at the prime-time debate are:
Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The top 10 candidates will appear on Fox at 9pm ET. The moderators for the 9pm ET debate are Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace.
Trump, who has been swimming in headlines since his announcement in June, tweeted:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/626841343269191685
Those who did not make the prime-time cut include:
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorana, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki, and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
Fox News' prime-time debate selection has come under fire from the excluded candidates. Surveys from Bloomberg, CBS News, Fox News, Quinnipiac University, and Monmouth University determined the top 10 candidates. Some excluded candidates complained the margin of error is too wide.
Therefore, the excluded candidates will be granted the opportunity to debate at 5pm ET. The moderators for this hour-long debate include Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum.
The candidates are expected to respond to the moderators' questions in 60 seconds and are given 30 second rebuttals. If a candidate's name is directly addressed by another White House hopeful, that candidate will get a chance to respond for a length of time determined by the moderator.
Whether or not the debates will feature substantive discussions on the issues that the American public cares about or be more reminiscent of 2012 remains to be seen.
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