trump and john kasich were on last week. they had different answers and it was not a gotcha question. if someone didn t know what an f-35 was, that s not my fault. the gotcha question is in the mind of the moderator. exactly. mike, that brings me to the question, who decides what s a gotcha question? is it the moderator? is it the rnc? is it the campaign? who is it? who should decide? well, i think, first of all, you have to have a body that has control of the process, like the rnc does, to hold people accountable when they do ask gotcha questions. i think, let s look at what the rnc has done from last cycle. last cycle, 23 debates. the rnc took over the process. their goal was, let s not have 23 debates. they wanted to make sure we had people like hugh, part of the moderators, so we had conservative voices on the panel. so we had fewer of those questions. they wanted to represent what the candidates wanted. what you re seeing now is a process where the candidates are
i ll give an example. ben carson said, quote, questions from moderators about someone s morality are uncalled for, and that s the kind of approach we d like to see change. he went on to say, he wants to bring in non-journalists so they can ask questions republicans care about. my question for you, hugh, isn t morality important to the republican candidates? why shouldn t such questions be asked? everything is important to a republican primary voter when it comes to beating hillary clinton. i want to it rate something mike just said. they did a magnificent job of bringing order out of chaos. we had a hindenburg debate last week. we shouldn t change the good that s been done. the cnn debate had 23 million watching live for three hours. millions more online and listening to salem media group radio broadcast. they can t destroy the tension in the room or they ll lose the audience. nobody wants to watch a series
any of them. i have a vast variety of sources where we get our news. okay. let s talk about the gotcha question with the president of the congressional leadership fund and former chief of staffer of the rnc, mike shields. i m joined by conservative radio host hugh hu. hugh, you were accused by trump of asking a gotcha question. in your mind, what is a gotcha question? a gotcha question is one where the moderator intends to embarrass the person that he is asking the question. that s why i disagreed with donald trump. we ve since had many, many more conversations, interviews. we disagreed about one question. he didn t hear it right. generally, when a moderator or panelist is trying to embarrass the candidate, hoping to make them look bad, that s a gotcha question. if a candidate looks bad because they don t know the answer to a question, by the way, donald
getting together, which i think the rnc is going to be thrilled about. i don t know if you tried to organize a pta or homeowners association, but imagine getting candidates to agree on anything. if they re going to get together and go to the networks, the rnc will be thrilled. one of the things they can address is what are the questions that will be asked? it s well within their purview to ask that question before they get on the stage. i do think they ll face an issue where you have journalists that will say, we re not going to tell you. there s a to and fro there. i agree, a gotcha question is one we saw on the last debate, where someone is purposely designing a question just to make you look stupid, not to find out what information you have or where you stand on the issues. that s a gotcha question. okay. i agree with you there. i do agree that journalists aren t going to want to, you know, send the candidates their questions before the kand candi are asked the question. that s so
rush limbaugh and mark levin. would that be good? would that be bad? what do you think? i think if that s what the candidates want, they ll bring it to the rnc. the rnc will add co vvocate for is that a good thing, conservatives questioned by conservatives? not all republicans are conservative. yeah, i think the key thing is for the candidates to have leverage. what you saw was cnbc went over the line, and now the rnc said, we re going to pull back and maybe not do another debate with you. let s reconsider how you put your moderators up there. i think the key issue is, how can the rnc and candidates work together have to leverage in the future to say, if you cross the line and go into something where you re having a gotcha debate, we re not going to work with you anymore. i think the reason they re talking about the other folks is they trust that they re not going to cross the line. you believe that, hugh? your thoughts? yes, levine is a terrific