Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is once again pressuring the Republican National Committee to change their debate format after audience declines across the previous three showdowns.
“This January GOP debate should be held on X, not on cable TV, moderated by Tucker [Carlson], who might just ask questions that primary voters actually care about,” Ramaswamy said in a statement to The Post on Friday.
“They say they want to reach younger voters and new audiences? Well that’s how you do it,” the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur added.
The first Republican primary debate, hosted by Fox News Channel and held on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, averaged 12.8 million viewers. The second debate, held Sept. 27 in Simi Valley, Calif. and hosted by the Fox Business Network, got 9.5 million viewers, while the third debate, hosted by NBC News Nov. 8 in Miami, received an average of 7.51 million viewers.
The RNC did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post about Ramaswamy’s proposal.
The White House hopeful had made the same criticism in his opening remarks during the Miami debate, arguing Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk should moderate the debates to attrack “ten times the viewership.”
The Ramaswamy campaign has previously called on the RNC to alter its debate guidelines to feature a single moderator who “is able to enforce debate rules” and to raise the unique donor threshold from 70,000 to 100,000 to weed out lower-performing candidates.
Ramaswamy has also gone head-to-head with RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, calling on her to resign following a series of poor Republican election performances.
The fourth debate will be held in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Dec. 6. The event will be hosted and broad by NewsNation and will be moderated by former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas and The Washington Free Beacon’s Eliana Johnson.
In an unusual move, the debate will also be broadcast live on the CW Network in the Eastern and Central time zones only
The debate stage will have fewer candidates than in Miami, due to higher qualification benchmarks and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) dropping out of the race on Nov. 12.
Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley could all qualify for the Alabama debate. Former President Donald Trump is unlikely to attend.
Future debate dates and locations have yet to be announced, but Republicans are expected to hold at least one additional debate before the Iowa caucus Jan. 15 and New Hampshire primary on Jan. 23.