Where Will The Next GOP Debate Be Held?

If you’re like the rest of America, you’re probably aching for another Republican primary debate. Just kidding, nobody is aching for that. But it’s going to happen anyway: The fourth GOP debate of the 2016 cycle will be held on Nov. 10, roughly two weeks after the last one. This time, it will be hosted by Fox Business Network, and like the previous forums, it will be divided into two events: An undercard debate featuring the lowest-polling candidates and a primetime debate with “serious” candidates like Donald Trump and Ben Carson. But where will the fourth GOP debate be?

It’s going to take place at Milwaukee Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There’s something serendipitous about this locale, as Wisconsin is the home state of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus (yes, that is his real name). Priebus recently interjected himself into a controversy surrounding CNBC, whose handling of the last Republican debate drew criticism from across the ideological spectrum. In reaction to widespread conservative discontent over the CNBC moderators, Priebus wrote a letter to NBC informing them that he was suspending the GOP’s relationship with the network, which was scheduled to host a future GOP debate.

Many of the Republican candidates, and just about the entire conservative media, were upset because they believed CNBC’s moderators didn’t ask substantive, policy-based questions. Several of the candidates, most notably Ted Cruz, but also Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, made a big show of trashing the moderators at the debate, with Rubio referring to the mainstream media as the Democratic Party’s “ultimate super PAC.” In reality, though, CNBC’s moderators did ask serious questions that were grounded in policy. It’s just that these questions exposed shortcomings in the candidates’ economic policies, and so the candidates didn’t want to have to answer them.

That being said, there were other serious problems with the CNBC debate. The moderators never quite seemed in control of the event, and inexplicably, they frequently interrupted and spoke over each other. The result was a lot of chaos and confusion, most of it unnecessary and some not even involving any of the candidates themselves.

FBN will likely seek to overcome these hurdles while hosting the Wisconsin debate. The network is taking pains to distance itself from the last event, and as seen in a new commercial, is in fact openly mocking CNBC over the poor reception of the previous forum. Whether the moderators will be as brazen in their questioning as FBN’s ad team was with that commercial remains to be seen.