Trump Says He’ll Boycott Debate To Protect Viewers From Greedy Network – Update

2nd UPDATE with Trump’s Fox News interview: Donald Trump says he’s threatening to boycott CNBC’s upcoming GOP debate for viewers’ sake, after learning CNBC wanted the debate to run longer than two hours and exclude candidates’ opening and closing statements. “The same thing is happening as happened with CNN,” He told Greta Van Susteren on her Fox News Channel show this evening. “They sold the commercials so much, and for so much money. It was going to be $4,000 for a 30-second commercial, and then it ended up being $200,000 and $250,000 for a 30-second commercial. And the same thing is happening now with CNBC. And what they’re trying to do, they’ve sold out all their commercials and they want to increase [the debate] by an hour.” Watch the interview above. Trump noted that this week’s Dem debate on CNN was only two hours long (actually about 2 1/2) and yet “pretty boring.” Neither he nor Van Susteren mentioned that debate included just five candidates, while CNN’s main GOP debate packed 11 onstage taking questions

“I think it’s unfair to the viewers because it’s too much to watch. They’re doing it because they want to make more money,” Trump said of CNBC. “It’s unfair to the viewers. I don’t care. I could stand for five hours; I could stand for 10 hours.”

UPDATE with details: GOP candidates just seized control of televised debates for the rest of the election cycle –  just as if they were stars of a TV show that became an overnight hit, averaging 24 million viewers on a ratings-starved network. Oh, wait….

Donald Trump and Ben Carson’s campaigns have sent a letter to CNBC (read it below) saying they will not participate in the network’s October 28 GOP debate unless CNBC promises the debate will run just two hours in length, including commercial breaks. The network also must agree to include opening and closing statements by all candidates onstage — which, in a GOP debate, could mean nearly a dozen statements at each end of the event.

“Mr. Trump and Dr. Carson do agree to a 120-minute debate that includes commercial breaks and opening and closing statements,” the candidates’ reps said in a letter to CNBC Washington bureau chief Matthew Cuddy. “Mr. Trump and Dr. Carson do not, and will not, agree to appear at a debate that is more than 120 minutes long including commercial breaks.