There wasn’t much to celebrate after Wednesday’s GOP debate from Boulder, Colorado, especially not at host network CNBC.
While the face-off between 10 Republican candidates including Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio lacked the spark and energy of the past two debates (aired on Fox News and CNN, respectively), it was CNBC that bore the brunt of viewers’ wrath on social media.
From asking “bizarre questions” to being “rude and incompetent,” moderators Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood were slammed by Twitter users for their performances.
“These three @CNBC doofuses have done more to unite the GOP than anyone since Reagan,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another commented that CNBC was lucky that “The Daily Show” is on hiatus this week: “They would have gotten mocked into irrelevance and possibly bankruptcy.”
One viewer even accused the moderators of wasting “the opportunity 2 talk about real issues.”
It wasn’t just social media users who were disappointed by CNBC, the cable channel was also blasted by the chairman of the Republican National Committee within minutes of debate’s conclusion.
“CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.
“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.”
See the tweets below.
CNBC is lucky @TheDailyShow is on hiatus this week.
They would have gotten mocked into irrelevance and possibly bankruptcy. #GOPDebate
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) October 29, 2015
Heh==> RT @realOBF: These three @CNBC doofuses have done more to unite the GOP than anyone since Reagan. #GOPDebate
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 29, 2015
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/659555258117525504
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/659553032749899776
https://twitter.com/DeepSouthProud/status/659563365153550337
https://twitter.com/Sttbs73/status/659563261386330112
Looks like I wasn’t the only one who thought so. #GOPDebatehttps://t.co/HqoYJ9p9Qg
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) October 29, 2015
Questions went from lame to insulting & then just irrelevant. Wasted opportunity 2 talk about real issues #GOPDebate https://t.co/2XMqTUMKr8
— Moira Forbes (@moiraforbes) October 29, 2015
https://twitter.com/debostic/status/659560642752458753
So many interruptions. So many interesting conversations cut off. Am I the only one who wishes there were a 3rd hour of this #GOPDebate?
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 29, 2015
You know it's a mess when the moderator has to say "Senator!" like a parent trying to calm their kid down at a Whole Foods. #GOPDebate
— Funny Or Die (@funnyordie) October 29, 2015
Carly Fiorina's hair would reduce concussions in the NFL by 80%. #GOPDebate
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 29, 2015