Charles Krauthammer said Monday that Republican presidential candidates demonstrated they could go toe-to-toe with the liberal media and win at last week's CNBC debate.
"The debate about the debate is over, and they crushed the media. There is a general consensus, including in liberal media, that it was an awful debate run by disrespectful and kind of useless moderators, who clearly showed the world that there is a liberal bias," Krauthammer said on Fox News.
"So the GOP won, and actually came out of this debate looking good as a group," Krauthammer said.
CNBC was panned by liberals and conservatives alike for its handling of the Republican debate last week. The network's moderators were subjected to multiple tongue-lashings by the candidates, who accused them of asking uninformed and leading questions.
Krauthammer said that CNBC's self-immolation demonstrated why Republicans should not avoid debates moderated by liberals.
"The GOP will take any liberal because, obviously, when they took on the CNBC liberals, they won," Krauthammer said.
Transcript below:
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The Republican candidates should quit while they're ahead. They won this debate against the media. The debate about the debate is over, and they crushed the media. There is a general consensus, including in liberal media, that it was an awful debate run by disrespectful and kind of useless moderators, who clearly showed the world that there is a liberal bias. So the GOP won, and actually came out of this debate looking good as a group. At this point, continuing to beat the dead horse is kind of pointless. Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina are right. We won that argument, we're willing to show up anywhere, anytime and it actually helps them. I think having conservative moderators—say Rush and two people he chooses—would be a splendid idea if that panel would be the moderators for the Democratic debate and the GOP will take any liberal because obviously when they took on the CNBC liberals, they won. So, you know, the graphics on the temperature of the room is important, but it isn't the main issue. The main issue is debating the ideas.