A Letter to ABC News from Jim Gilmore on Saturday ABC Debate for Republican Candidates for President
To: Veronica Stracqualurisi
ABC News
From: Jim Gilmore
Candidate for President
Dear Veronica,
I am writing you about the scheduled Saturday ABC Debate for Republican candidates for President. I hope you will see that this letter is reviewed by those at ABC making decisions about the debate.
While I do not agree with the unseemly lobbying and pressure being applied by one of the candidates to be included in the debate. I do believe this: ALL of the remaining Republican candidates should be in the ABC debate.
Carly Fiorina has written the Republican National Committee and is doing paid robo-calls designed to force ABC to include her in the upcoming debate. Despite Ms. Fiorina's claims to the contrary there are nine candidates remaining in the Republican field, including me. I am not going to use her tactics to try to intimidate one of America's great networks, but I do believe all of the candidates should be included in the Saturday event, especially if Ms. Fiorina is invited to participate.
By any standard, as the only veteran in the presidential field, as a former prosecutor, a former attorney general, a former governor and a former chairman of a national terrorism commission, I am more qualified
for the presidency than Ms. Fiorina. Additionally, Ms. Fiorina and I
both were in the undercard debate in Iowa last week and almost all of the observers claimed I was the winner of that debate. My campaign is moving upward in New Hampshire while her campaign has been on a downward trend for the last several months.
Eight other candidates have withdrawn from the Republican field in the past two weekend's debate, by all that is fair it should also include me. Not because I have complained, but because by any measure I am more qualified to be on that stage than Ms. Fiorina.
I respectfully ask that you include ALL Republican candidates in the ABC debate to give NH voters a choice. But especially if you modify your requirements so that Ms. Fiorina is included in the upcoming debate, you should modify them so all the Republican candidates are included, including me.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
James S. Gilmore, III
Candidate for President (2016)
