When is the next Republican debate? How to watch live on TV - and why you should

How to watch the third Republican debate?

With some genuine interest, for once. Not because of the candidates on stage, who doubtless will continue to bicker in the long shadow of Donald Trump, who is again skipping the proceedings. (These proceedings. Not the courtroom proceedings he’s involved in for the foreseeable future.) The other candidates are so far in Trump’s rearview mirror he’d have to stop the car and turn around and go back to see them. It’s like a least-likely-to-succeed contest.

What a world.

But for the first time in the 2024 election campaign, Fox News or one of its networks won’t be hosting the debate. How inspiring. It’s like the little baby deer taking its tentative first steps into the real world, which isn’t as comforting and nurturing as the one it’s used to.

When is the 3rd GOP debate?

The third GOP debate is scheduled for 6 p.m. Arizona time on Wednesday, Nov. 8 on NBC. The NBC moderators are “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt and “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, along with Hugh Hewitt, host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on Salem Radio Network.

If you are unfamiliar with the Salem Radio Network, it also hosts shows by such notable right-wing MAGAlicious personalities as Charlie Kirk and Sebastian Gorka. That is not an endorsement — at all. Just an observation. Hewitt is one of those conservatives who carve out an identity as a reasonable person by not lying about the outcome of the 2020 election (a low bar, but it’s something) and then writes something like this, on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol:

"The events of a year ago are all the news today, but nobody in the real world is talking about it. Everybody knows something bad happened, maybe even some lives were in danger, but it’s over, the good guys won, prosecute the bad actors and move on. Insurrection? That might technically be true, then again it might not, but most people don’t care one way or the other.”

A lot of them do, and all of them should.

It's pathetic. Maybe the cop who insists, “Nothing to see here” while waving you past a 10-car pileup is not the best choice for keeping things honest.

Hewitt, however, does have experience hosting debates, as do Holt and Welker. In fact, Welker has had the most luck of anyone reining in Trump in any of the presidential debates he has participated in. In 2020 she managed to keep a debate between Trump and Joe Biden on the rails, basically by letting Trump spew and then quickly moving on so that Biden could get a word in edgewise. Even Trump praised her.

Welker didn't fare well in her Trump interview on 'MTP'

Unfortunately, Welker interviewed Trump again on her first day as “Meet the Press” moderator and it didn’t go as well. A lot has happened since the 2020 debate — most notably Trump encouraged an insurrection and continues to lie about the outcome of the election, endangering democracy. Whether he deserves more than even the most perfunctory coverage is an open question (to which I would answer no, he does not).

Which brings us back to the GOP debate Wednesday. So far five candidates have qualified: Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott. As the numbers dwindle, it presumably leaves more room for actual answers and not just sniping, though whether Ramaswamy is capable of that is a good question.

Speaking of good questions, this is the first debate for the candidates without the warm protective blanket of Fox News embracing them (making the first question of the 2024 election about “Rich Men North of Richmond” just doesn’t get the ridicule it should). Which makes it an excellent time to ask a simple question, and insist upon a real answer: Who won the 2020 election?

Until that one gets answered, none of the other ones matter as much.

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What time is the GOP debate?

6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8 on NBC.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X, formerly known as Twitter: @goodyk.

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