Republican primary front-runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson are threatening that they might not show up at the next debate, according to The Hill.
The two would-be presidents sent a joint letter to CNBC, who is hosting the next Republican debate, saying they won't participate unless the debate does not exceed two hours. They are also demanding that the debate provide time for both opening and closing statements from all participating candidates.
"The criteria that was outlined by CNBC was never discussed with any of the candidates or the campaigns," said Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager. "Until we have this criteria specifically laid out...it is difficult to participate," he said, according to The New York Times.
The last Republican debate was extended to three hours by CNN. The sheer size of the Republican field has demanded larger debate stages and longer debate times. The CNBC debate is scheduled to take place in Boulder, Colo.
"Our goal is to host the most substantive debate possible. Our practice in the past has been to forgo opening statements to allow more time to address the critical issues that matter most to the American people. We started a dialogue yesterday with all of the campaigns involved and we will certainly take the candidates' views on the format into consideration as we finalize the debate structure," CNBC said in a statement, according to CNN.
