Reince Priebus, chair of the Republican National Committee, slammed CNBC immediately after a GOP debate hosted by the network ended Wednesday night.
Priebus said in a statement he found the debate "extremely disappointing":
"While I was proud of our candidates and the way they handled tonight’s debate, the performance by the CNBC moderators was extremely disappointing and did a disservice to their network, our candidates, and voters. Our diverse field of talented and exceptionally qualified candidates did their best to share ideas for how to reinvigorate the economy and put Americans back to work despite deeply unfortunate questioning from CNBC," said Chairman Priebus.
"One of the great things about our party is that we are able to have a dynamic exchange about which solutions will secure a prosperous future, and I will fight to ensure future debates allow for a more robust exchange. CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled.”
The RNC chairman also tweeted his thoughts on the debate:
Priebus wasn't alone in his criticism. The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe reports that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's campaign manager expressed concerns to CNBC about the amount of time the candidate was given to speak during the event.
NPR pointed out that Bush did have the least amount of speaking time, getting less than seven minutes while rivals Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina had over 10 minutes each.
A CNBC spokesman told The Huffington Post: "People who want to be President of the United States should be able to answer tough questions."
The conversation between the moderators and debaters became chaotic at times. While questioning Donald Trump on his criticism of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, CNBC's Becky Quick struggled to recall where she'd read Trump's comments and was unable to cite a source when the candidate denied being critical. It turns out the slam against Zuckerberg is listed on Trump's own website.
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Jennifer Bendery and Michael Calderone contributed to this report.
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