CNN host Candy Crowley on Sunday confronted Republican National Committee Chairman (RNC) Reince Priebus and asked him why he was not pulling GOP debates off of the Fox News Channel after it was revealed that Fox Television studios may be producing a Hillary Clinton miniseries.
In letters to NBC Entertainment and CNN last week, Priebus had threatened to not allow the networks to host any Republican presidential primary debates unless plans to air shows about Clinton were scrapped.
Priebus later explained to Fox News host Sean Hannity that he as attempting to “control the referees” because CNN and NBC were "not in the business of promoting our party."
But The New York Times reported on Friday that Fox Television Studios, the sister company of Fox News, was in talks to produce the miniseries for NBC.
During an interview on Sunday, CNN host Candy Crowley asked Priebus if Fox News should be subject to the same scrutiny as NBC and CNN.
"First of all, our party has to quit availing our self to biased moderators and companies that put on television, you know, in this particular case documentaries and miniseries about a particular candidate that we all know is gearing up to run for president, and that's Hillary Clinton," Priebus explained. "And so the big question for me, Candy, number one, is which company is putting it on the air, who's doing the work? I'm not interested if they're using the same caterer or whether they all drink Diet Coke, or I'm not boycotting Diane Lane."
"I'm going to boycott the company that puts the miniseries and documentaries on the air for the American people to view," he continued. "I'm not interested whether they use the same sound studio or whether they use the same set. I don't know the truth of anything you're talking about. But I do know what's very clear is that the company that puts these things on the air to promote Hillary Clinton, including CNN, is the company that's not going to be involved in our debates."
"So, the people that write and produce and put together the shows are not what you're worried about?" Crowley pressed.
"I'm not going to boycott Diane Lane [for playing Hillary Clinton]!" Priebus shot back. "It's not her fault she decided to take a script. I'm not going to boycott the food trucks that service all of the same companies."
"Candy, some researcher at CNN or NBC worked for a few days to find some little connection somewhere down the road to bring something into this debate," the RNC chairman insisted. "I think it's totally ridiculous and stupid."
