. -- ben ginsberg is an advisor on everything.en involved with every presidential campaign for a long time. he is working closely with all the republican presidential campaigns that have been unhappy with the way that the date has been structured. he drafted some new language they will be sending to television networks sponsoring those debates in the weeks and months ahead. talk us through how we went from the u drafted over the weekend to the letter that is about to be sent out why the republican campaigns. go. whole meeting was because the campaigns were not happy with the way the debates were being held. they wanted more transparency, accountability. of all thet meeting campaigns. it was incredibly collegial and productive. there were some common gripes. the letter that went out originally was sort of my summation, not signed off on by any campaign. it dealt with every issue you have ever seen in this debate in about the last four cycles. not unsurprisingly, different campaigns have different parts they wanted in. the central p

[laughter] ben ginsberg served as national the new york times has called him legendary. younsel to the bush/chene presidential campaigns in the 2000 and 2004 election cycle and played a central role in the 2000 florida recount. 2008, he served as national counsel to the romney for president campaign. he currently represents numerous political parties, individuals and corporations specializing in election law issues. also serves as counsel to the republican governors association. he has been a guest lecturer at the stanford university law school, a fellow at harvard institute for politics and a professor of law at georgetown. before entering law school, he spent five years as a journalist. please welcome all of our panelists. [applause] i will ask them questions for the first 20 or 25 minutes. and then come integrate your questions into the discussion, asking the questions you write on cards. let me start by giving the audience more of a sense of who you are and what you do. ms. ravel, what powers does the federal election commission actually have and what does it mean to

include the r-n-c in sunday's meeting... ...instead inviting republican lawyer and debate negotiator ben ginsberg as an impartial facilitator . "the information flow has not been nearly what it's been in past years."after the meeting, these demands emerged: a two-hour time limit, 30 seconds for opening and closing statements, and equal speaking time for each candidate. and if those demands aren't met... something of a veiled threat to cut broadcast media out of the debate process: "i think we can look beyond television partnerships - facebook and twitter and google and youtube - they would all host a debate."i'm reid binion, reporting. the next republican debate will air on fox news next tuesday. democratic candidates will take part in a debate this friday on m-s-n-b-c. florida governor jeb bush may have the most ground to make up... with his campaign stalled in fifth place national... bush is trying to jump start some momentum.. s/ gov. jeb bush / presidential candidate :24i've gotten a lot of advice lately myself, more than enough thank you. some is stylistic. take off the suit coat. ditch the

steve mcmahon and ben ginsberg, our two great friends, thanks for coming in., what you did not see at the iowa debate over the weekend. we will be back with that in 60 seconds. ♪ mark: coming out of this saturday night presidential debate in iowa, hillary clinton has been taking some heat, mostly about contributions from wall street. she justified them by saying this. mrs. clinton: you know, not only do i have hundreds and thousands of donors, most of them small and proud, and for the first time, a majority of my donors are women, 60%. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: i represented new york, and i represented new york on 9/11, and we were attacked where wall street is. i spent a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. mark: that 9/11 line has been getting hillary clinton a lot at heat, also from her rivals, and we caught up with martin o'malley and bernie sanders, and here is their reaction on that 9/11 moment. mr. o'malley: i thought it was a pretty disgraceful moment when she tried to put out a smokescreen for 9/11 to hide that she has taken mo

hanson: these two areas, ben, either voter access or the others? mr. ginsberg: well, on redistricting, i was council at the republican national committee in the 1990's, and we bought a family dog about that time and nature gerrymander. [laughter] look, redistricting has been described as a source of polarization in the country and in sort of rigging districts. it is hard to make the argument that the senate of the united states is a less polarized place than the u.s. house. there is no redistricting in the u.s. senate. there is in the house. wonident obama, when he election, 136 of the 39 largest metropolitan areas. and the rest of the country, mitt romney one. -- won. that is a polarized country in which redistricting and gerrymandering has nothing to do with that. so i think that the evil of gerrymandering and redistricting is somewhat overblown. on ballot access, i had the honor of cochairing the presidential commission on election administration with bob bauer, an excellent lawyer in washington and represented president obama's campaign. so we looked carefu

include the r-n-c in sunday's meeting... ...instead inviting republican lawyer and debate negotiator ben ginsberg as an impartial facilitator . "the information flow has not been nearly what it's been in past years."after the meeting, these demands emerged: a two-hour time limit, 30 seconds for opening and closing statements, equal speaking time for each candidate. and if those demands aren't met... something of a veiled threat to cut broadcast media out of the debate process: "i think we can look beyond television partnerships - facebook, twitter, google, and youtube - they would all host a debate. you know, it is 2015 "i'm reid binion, reporting n-b-c says its trying to work things out with the party. airline executives believe an "external influence" caused the crash of a russian plane. "metro jet flight 92-68" broke saturday morning. all 224 people on board were killed. officials exclude technical problems and human error as possible causes for the crash. they say the crew didn't issue any warnings or try to communicate during its final moments. a man is behind bars after leading police on a

here to speculate with us, ben ginsberg. out in l.a., bill carrick. ben, let me start with you.oving into this new phase of the campaign, what do you think these candidates are going to be focused on as we head into the holidays and into a time when debates may matter a little bit less. ben: absolutely the time where they need to target their states and target their voters within the states to be sure those voters are going to come out and vote for them. there will be a lot of messaging geared at particular segments of the republican primary electorate, especially in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, and nevada. mark: you have spent a career making a lot of tv ads. you have seen jeb bush ads not move his numbers in the right directions. would you think you could drive poll numbers in the early stages with paid media on television? bill: it is very hard to do it with early media. people about success late with media. early media seems to evaporate. having firepower on the media site at the end is very important. what we saw, hard to get a message across, having big rating poin

instead, inviting republican lawyer and debate negotiator ben ginsberg as an impartial facilitate or.n flow has not been nearly what it has been in past years. >> after the meeting, these demands emerged. a two-hour time limit, 30 seconds for opening and closing statements, and equal speaking time for each candidate. and if those demand aren't met, something of availed threat to cut broadcast media out of the debate process. >> television partnerships, facebook, twitter, google, and youtube, they would all -- >> cbs-3, "eyewitness news". >>> 5:23 right now, new house speaker paul ryan says the gop will not work with president obama on immigration reform. the topic came up during a interview on cbs "face the nation". >> i think it would be a ridiculous notion to try and work on an issue like this with a president we simply cannot trust on this issue. he tried to go it alone, circumventing legislative pros west his executives orders. that is not in the cards. >> ryan went on to say it may be possible to get smaller immigration-related policies passed. >> former politician and actor, fre

instead they tapped superlawyer ben ginsberg as their negotiator. >> the candidates do want to negotiate for themselves. i think they're appreciative of the role of the rnc and the setting of the schedule, but at end of the day, it's the candidates that walk up on the stage, so they want the information. >> 30 days before each debate, the candidates want specific questions answered about format and logistics. they raise concerns about graphics and biographies. they want to know how the time will be managed so they know whether they'll be taking part or not. after the 2012 debates, they announce that had for the first time ever the rnc would exert control over the debates. now he's under fire for the results. a 3-hour debate by cnn and what the candidates had to say. they insist they're not cutting the party out. >> the truth is we're involved, we're in control, we're setting the calendar. in fact, if what happens from last night goes forward, i think it's exactly where we want to be. >> previs has tapped a new player in hopes of staying in control of debates. karen cross has been tempora

ben ginsberg, a long-time rnc legal adviser. >> now it's time to make a course correction. >> 15% still leaves you with a 1.1 -- >> reporter: candidates like carson say they want constraints on debate moderators. >> we should have moderators who are interested in disseminating the information about the candidates as opposed to, you know, gotcha. you did this. and defend yourself on that. >> reporter: as for defending, jeb bush after three mediocre debates has had to do plenty of it. >> i'm a grinder. i mean, when i see that i'm not doing something well, then i reset and i get better. >> reporter: bush tried unsuccessfully to get the better of ally turned rival marco rubio by attack dozens of senate votes missed while campaigning. a topic bush won't let go. >> i think he's given up. and i think that's the wrong thing to do. >> reporter: back to the debates. the campaign said there simply isn't enough time to incorporate all the desired changes into the november 10th debate on the fox business channel. there will, however, be longer -- there will be time for longer answers, norah. 90 seco

(ben ginsberg/ gop lawyer, nat sot, "it was a tad off the neneworks a questionnaire next time: : what's the format? who are the moderators? how long will it last? if they don't like the answers, some are threatening to boycott: "a couple of us are the o oes that are generating the ratings they're pushing a two- hour time limit, , d opening statements: ("abc this week") super burned in "to allow the voters to have an opportunity to see what's behind each of the candidates." ("fo news sunday") super burned in "i want smaller groups on the ststge, better qqestions, and let us all be heard from equally." ted cruz suggests republican moderators with more substantive questions. "we're not talking about pussycat questions. we're not talking about easy questions. we're talking about questions that are relevant to what a they're pulling out the next nbc debate. nbc says they're trying to work it out. tracie potts, nbc news, washington. and this morningl the republican party's put a new official in charge of debatts. a new era is beginning in washington. former house speaker john boehner opens up

ben ginsberg, a long-time rnc legal adviser. >> now it's time to make a course correreion. >> 15% still leaves you with a $1.1 trillion hole -- >> reporter: candidates like carson say they want cstraints on debate moderators. >> we should have moderators who are interested in disseminating the informatatn about the candidates as opposed to, you know, gotcha. you did this. and defend yourself on that. >> reporter: as for defendinin jeb bush aftererhree mediocre debates has had to do plenty of it. >> i'm a grinder. i mean, when i see that i'm not doing something well, then i reser and i get better. >> repepter: bush tried unsuccessfully to get the better of ally turned rival marco rubio by attack dozens of senate votes missed while campaigning. a topic bush won't let go. >> i think he's given up. thing to do. >> reporter: back to the debates. the campaign said there simply isn't enough time to incorporate all the desired changes into the novemberer0th debate on the fox business channel. there will, however, be longer -- there will be time for longer answers, norah. 90 seconds instead of 6

instead they tapped superlawyer ben ginsberg as their negotiator. >> the candidates do want to negotiate for themselves. i think they're appreciative of the role of the rnc and the setting of the schedule, but at end of the day, it's the candidates that walk up on the stage, so they want the information. >> 30 days before each debate, the candidates want specific questions answered about format and logistics. they raise concerns about graphics and biographies. they want to know how the time will be managed so they know whether they'll be taking part or not. after the 2012 debates, they announce that had for the first time ever the rnc would exert control over the debates. now he's under fire for the results. a 3-hour debate by cnn and what the candidates had to say. they insist they're not cutting the party out. >> the truth is we're involved, we're in control, we're setting the calendar. in fact, if what happens from last night goes forward, i think it's exactly where we want to be. >> previs has tapped a new player in hopes of staying in control of debates. karen cross has been tempora

. >>> with the now republican strategist, ben ginsberg, who will facilitate at that meeting. you all for being here. appreciate it, especially morning after halloween. ben i have to start with you. later today you're going to be in the super secret place and you're going to be talking to all the campaigns and trying to help them figure out how to deal with their -- the fact that they're upset about this debate. what are you going to tell them? >> i'm going to tell them you need to figure out what to do. there have been problems with the first three debates. but it's their meeting, their agenda and their debates. >> because it's a little bit inside baseball but it's really boil boiled over, historically, at least the past couple of election cycles, the campaigns have all kind of come together and helped to organize who gets the debates. this year the republican national committee took over. >> yes. >> are you going to recommend that the candidates take it back? >> i will not be in the position of making recommendations but rather listening to the campaigns. i was lucky enough t

theists have chair of the federal election commission, veteran campaign strategist ace smith and ben ginsberg, and we also want to thank our audiences here at the on radio,th club, television, and internet. i am professor kirk sampson from santa clara university's center for applied ethics, and now this meeting of the commonwealth club of california, the place where you are in the know, is adjourned. [laughter] -- [applause] [indiscernible] [chattering] >> coming up, the memorial presidentth french for the paris attack victims. that is followed by david cameron explaining to parliament his plan for dealing with isis. then, a look at some of the withs the u.s. has immigration. "washington journal" begins at 7:00 a.m. eastern with the news and your calls. >> john hinckley shot president reagan and he was not wearing a vest that day. john hinckley was stocking jimmy carter before this. ronald feynman, author of the book "assassinations, threats, and the american presidency" talks about the assassination attempts and physical threats made against presidents and presidential candidates. >> the 16t

instead inviting republican lawyer and debate negotiator ben ginsberg as impartial facilitate or. >> the information flow has not been nearly what it has been in past years. >> after the meeting, these demands emerged. a two hour time limit, 30 seconds for opening and closing statements, and ' qual speaking time for each candidate. and if those demands aren't met, something after veiled threat to cut broadcast media out of the debate process. >> beyond television partnerships, facebook, twitter -- >> cbs-3, "eyewitness news". >>> coming up in the next half hour of "eyewitness news", voters head to the polls tomorrow to elect new mayor in philadelphia. we will hear from both candidates. >>> also, prince harry shares an emotional moment with a american marine, who walked 1,000 miles across britain. >> jan? >> and, a plea from police in kennett square this morning, after needles are reportedly found in half dozen candybars in that area. what parent should be looking for next. meisha? >> ninety-five southbound and girard certainly starting to heat up this morning, including other areas s

the rnc wasn't invited to last night's meeting but ben ginsberg, a top republican lawyer and debate negotiator was there to help facilitate the discussion. take a listen to how he summed up some of the campaign's main concerns. >> campaigns have been able -- should be able to get information about the details of the debate far sooner than they have this cycle. if you have that transparency and accountability, you can talk to the sponsors about formats and opening and closing statements and the way they put up graphics on the screen and even who the moderators are and the types of questions. >> now, we know the meeting lasted more than two hours. we're told it was a collegial meeting. the campaigns didn't agree on everything. here are some of the demands the campaigns plan to make for future debates. they want a two-hour time limit to the debates. they want a chance for every candidate to make opening and closing remarks of at least 30 seconds per candidate. they also want editorial control of the graphics that are put up on the screen while the candidates are speaking and they want equal speak

if you look at the letter penned by attorney ben ginsberg, which, you know, not all the candidates haveks for things like you can't ask yes or no questions without allowing for substantive follow-ups, you can't make us raise our hands in answer to a question, you have to give us opening statements and final statements. you know, i think that changes debates around the edges, but the problems the candidates have if they want a united front against networks is that they don't have a united front. you have 14 or 15 campaigns who have different aend assist here. chris christie doesn't want to sign on to any letter, because he doesn't want to look whiney, wants to look like a fighter. same with kasich, saying i'm used to getting tough questions. trump doesn't want to be attacked by the other candidates. carson wants to be able to just deliver a statement of what he believes, and so if you want to fight the networks or people who are asking you questions, you ought toe united, and they're not. >> jeff, donald trump is always doing it his way, wanting to negotiate directly with television exec

top republican lawyer ben ginsberg. >> i mean, what happened happened, and so you often have to make course corrections, and now it's time to make a course correction. last weeks's uninspired debate performance, jeb bush is vowing to step up his game. >> look, i know i've got to get better doing debate, and i -- i may -- i'm a grinder. i mean, when i see that i'm not doing something well, then i reset and i get bet sneer but for now he's sticking to his guns, again attacking protege turned rival marco rubio for his poor senate attendance record. >> if you're elected to serve, you should show up and vote. >> reporter: rubio again refusing to take the bait. >> i have tremendous admiration, i said that at the debate. >> right. >> you're never going to hear me bad mouth him. >> reporter: there's real urgency here. the next debate is now just eight days away. the trump and carson campaigns, of course, may have the most leverage. together they combine for a majority of republican support as trump's rep told the room, according to sources inside, we don't want anyone on stage because all th

interests have become apparent as you moved through this despite the best efforts of the great ben ginsberg lawyer. >> a few hours ago at a fund-raiser president obama weighed into this and mocking the complaints the republicans had. listen to what the president had to say. >> have you noticed that every one of these candidates say, obama's weak. putin's kicking sand in his face. when i talk to putin, he's going to straighten out. just looking at him, he's going to be -- and then it turns out they can't handle a bunch of cnbc moderators in a debate. i mean, let me tell you, if you can't handle -- if you can't handle those guys, you know, then i don't think the chinese and the russians are going to be too worried about you. >> apart from the fact here is a president having a very good team. yucking it up. his message is if you can't handle tough questions at a debate, moderators you don't like, how are you doing to deal with putin and the chinese. >> my objection about the debates is they function more like an extended sunday show where the primary interaction is between the moderators and c

invited to the private meeting of the campaigns, which instead tapped gop superlawyer ben ginsburg as their negotiator. ginsberg says: 'the candidates do want to negotiate for themselves. they're appreciative of the rnc and the schedule but at the end of the day it's candidates who walk on stage, want information.' 30 days before each debate the candidates want specific questions answered about format and logistics, the draft raises concerns about biographies and graphics, how time will be managed fairly and more -- so that each candidate can decide individually to take part or not. after the 2012 debates chairman reince priebus announced that for the first time the rnc in 2016 would exert control over debates - now he's under fire for the results - a three hour debate by cnn, and what the candidates called biased questions from cnbc. the gop chairman insists the candidates are not cutting the party out. priebus says: 'no. the setting the calendar. in fact if what happened from last night goes forward, i think it is exactly where we want to be' preibus has tapped a new player in hopes of staying in control of t