 RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote that CNBC failed to guarantee relatively equal speaking time for the candidates. | AP Photo RNC suspends partnership with NBC 
 
 The RNC has suspended plans to partner with NBC News for a February debate, citing a “bad faith” performance by CNBC in Wednesday night’s meeting of the candidates. “The CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith,” RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to NBC chairman Andrew Lack on Friday. “We understand that NBC does not exercise full editorial control over CNBC’s journalistic approach. However, the network is an arm of your organization, and we need to ensure there is not a repeat performance.” 
 
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 During and after Wednesday night’s debate, candidates and GOP officials lashed out at CNBC for the handling of the debate format and their line of questioning. Lack, 
 
 I write to inform you that pending further discussion between the Republican National Committee (RNC) and our presidential campaigns, we are suspending the partnership with NBC News for the Republican primary debate at the University of Houston on February 26, 2016. Priebus said a debate will still occur on that date, and National Review will still be a part of it, but he did not say whether another Spanish-language media organization will be involved. NBC responded to the RNC's decision in an email statement Friday afternoon saying, “This is a disappointing development. However, along with our debate broadcast partners at Telemundo we will work in good faith to resolve this matter with the Republican Party.” 
 
 A source with NBC pointed out that NBC News had no editorial control over the debate. Candidates were promised that speaking time would be carefully monitored to ensure fairness. ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 "While debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates’ visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC’s moderators engaged in a series of 'gotcha' questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack. "What took place Wednesday night was not an attempt to give the American people a greater understanding of our candidates’ policies and ideas." The same complaint had come directly from the Bush team, as campaign manager Danny Diaz confronted CNBC producers during the debate about Bush’s speaking time. Jim Nicholson, a former RNC chairman during the 2000 election, applauded Priebus’ decision and told The Hill that the “RNC ought to continue to use their megaphone to try to get these networks and moderators to have the same set of standards.” 
 
 “That’s a pretty big stick because those debates have been very well watched, so the advertising time is very valuable to the networks,” Nicholson said of the threat of pulling out of another debate. “They’re trying to appease the candidates who are already pissed off at the process they created. What they’ve got to do is look forward and determine the style of debate they want and who is going to be up there for it, rather than just reacting to what happened with CNBC, which was abhorrent.” “They are the strongest when they act collectively,” he said, adding that Donald Trump and Ben Carson won their demands to have opening and closing statements, as well as a two-hour time limit on the debate, after threatening to pull out of CNBC’s debate.
– NBC better get its fill of Donald Trump when he hosts Saturday Night Live next month because it sounds like the network won't be seeing him—or any of his fellow candidates—at its GOP debate, the Hill reports. The Republican National Committee has suspended ties with NBC ahead of the network's scheduled Feb. 26 debate over continuing anger about how this week's debate on CNBC was handled. "CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith," RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to NBC Friday. Priebus characterized the CNBC debate as petty, mean-spirited, and purposefully embarrassing for the candidates. "CNBC billed the debate as one that would focus on 'the key issues that matter to all voters—job growth, taxes, technology, retirement, and the health of our national economy,'" Priebus writes in the letter. Instead, he says CNBC focused on "gotcha" questions that were "inaccurate or downright offensive." The RNC still plans on holding a debate Feb. 26 and will partner with the conservative National Review, which was already a co-host of the original debate. It's not clear whether it would be televised. Politico notes that the "relationship between the two organizations is not necessarily dead," and NBC promised to "work in good faith to resolve this matter." The announcement comes on the heels of news that individual campaigns were planning to meet this weekend to discuss a "revolt" against debate hosts and the RNC itself.