Trump: CNBC Agrees to Limit Debate to 2 Hours

By Mark Joyella 

Donald Trump is claiming victory this morning in his fight to get CNBC to limit its upcoming Republican presidential debate to just two hours.

The candidate tweeted early Friday the network has agreed to his terms to shorten the debate after Trump and candidate Ben Carson–who, like Trump, leads the polls–threatened a boycott:

The two candidates signed a letter to CNBC Washington bureau chief Matthew Cuddy, agreeing only to participate in a debate that runs two hours and includes opening and closing statements from all candidates.

In a statement Thursday, CNBC said “Our goal is to host the most substantive debate possible. Our practice in the past has been to forego opening statements to allow more time to address the critical issues that matter most to the American people. We started a dialogue yesterday with all of the campaigns involved and we will certainly take the candidates’ views on the format into consideration as we finalize the debate structure.”

The CNBC debate is set for Oct. 28 in Boulder, Colo.

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