DEBATE

Liberty is a potential site to host a 2016 Republican debate

Liberty University and the Republican National Committee (RNC) are in talks about having a Republican presidential debate in January 2016, though negotiations are not final.

Sean Spicer, the RNC’s chief strategist and communications director, said Liberty and the RNC have been in talks for about a year. Spicer said he has visited the Lynchburg-area college a few times and a production team has also visited campus.

President Falwell said it was more than a year ago when he first discussed the possible debate with the RNC.

“I first met with Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, about the possibility of a debate at LU in Washington in the spring of 2014,” Falwell said. “We are thrilled to see the final plans for the debate finally taking shape.”

Spicer said Liberty is being considered as a host site due to many different factors.

“Number one, (Liberty has) just a world-class facility,” Spicer said. “Number two, they have experience putting on top-notch events. Number three, I think there is a commitment from the school leadership to do something like this on a world stage.”

Randy Smith, the executive vice president of Liberty, said there has not been a deal confirmed due to busy schedules of both parties.

“In the negotiations, it’s hard to say whose side the delay is on, but we presented everything to them that we would want,” Smith said. “They presented everything to us that they would want. But it’s just taken longer. The main reason it’s taking long is because everyone’s been so busy. When one of the other (Republican) debates takes place, there is a two-week period, (and) they just need to focus on that.”

Spicer said the date of the possible debate at Liberty is not yet confirmed, and it would not be open to the public, although he said Liberty students would not be completely excluded.
“We are working with the leadership of the school to ensure that students are involved,” Spicer said.

Smith said the debate would happen in part of the Vines Center.

“It would not be just open doors,” Smith said. “Obviously there is a tremendous amount of security involved. Secret Service is involved. Ticket distribution is very highly controlled. We don’t know for sure yet how many tickets Liberty University would have. That’s one of the things we are negotiating and haven’t agreed on yet. There will only be a total of 2,500 seats anyway.”

Spicer said the next few weeks will be very important in the negotiation process.

Rodriguez is the news editor.