CNN announced it would host an upcoming debate for Republican candidates at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire on January 21 with one glaring issue: the school did not appear to know about such an event.
"We were surprised to be included on a press release by a network about a debate which we had not planned or booked," Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm, wrote in a statement on X Friday.
New Hampshire Republican Party chairman Chris Ager was similarly perplexed, telling the New York Times that the announcement left him scratching his head. He also claimed that CNN still has not contacted him.
"The CNN thing came out and everybody’s like, ‘What the heck?'" he said.
Ager did note that a separate debate is scheduled to occur on January 18 at Saint Anselm and will be hosted by ABC News. Both the college and state Republicans have approved the debate.
"We’ve been working for months planning with ABC. We’ve already done a run-through of the facility. We’ve agreed on a lot of the details," he said.
Ager also admitted that the announcement caught his team off guard, telling the New York Times, "For a big, professional organization like that, putting out a location on this date and the location doesn’t know — something’s not quite right."
When asked about the confusion, a CNN spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We can’t speak to any miscommunication within Saint Anselm, but we are moving forward with our plans to host a debate in New Hampshire on January 21."
Ager expressed concern about a second possible debate two days before the January 23 primary, claiming it would leave candidates with very little time to respond to significant onstage moments.
"In New Hampshire, we like to give everybody a fair shot as much as possible," he added.
Fox News Digital also contacted the Republican National Committee (RNC) to help clarify the perplexing announcement but did not receive a response.
"We have held four successful debates across the country with the most conservative partners in the history of a Republican primary. We have no RNC debates scheduled in January and any debates currently scheduled are not affiliated with the RNC," the RNC’s Committee on Presidential Debates said in a statement. "It is now time for Republican primary voters to decide who will be our next President and candidates are free to use any forum or format to communicate to voters as they see fit."
