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Fox Business to Host Extra GOP Debate

Two days after State of the Union.

Republican National Committee Chaiman Reince Priebus was apparently so pleased with the Fox Business Network’s handling of the November 10 televised debate that he is giving the network an additional debate, taking place Janunary 14.

Priebus—who has absorbed criticism and coped with an incipient revolt from various Republican presidential campaigns unhappy with the way he organized the 10 debates on the primary schedule, mandated the polling criteria, and negotiated the formats with the sponsoring broadcast and cable networks—added the eleventh debate on Tuesday.

The earlier FBN debate, a relatively civil affair which focused on economic policy, drew none of the brickbats from party loyalists and the press that were aimed at the inaugural August 6 debate sponsored by its sister outlet, the Fox News Channel—nor the near-universal condemnation that greeted the Oct. 28 debate sponsored by rival CNBC business channel. That train wreck prompted Priebus to threaten a cancellation of a February 26 debate scheduled to hosted by NBC News and Univision.

FBN announced that it will take place at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center two days after President Obama delivers his final State of the Union address. The moderators—and, of course, the surviving candidates—have yet to be named.

—Lloyd Grove