'CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled,' Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday's Republican debate turned into a steel cage match in Boulder, Colorado as Donald Trump tangled with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called on Marco Rubio – his political protege – to resign his U.S. Senate seat.
As the CNBC hosts progressively lost control of the event, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz turned openly hostile, accusing them all of being Democrats intent on damaging the GOP field.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie soon piled on the network, with Trump wrapping up his night by claiming he had strong-armed them into shortening the debate 'so we could get the hell out of here.'
The evening event in Boulder, Colorado was billed as a purely economic discussion but turned into a referendum on America's political media, making the Republican-on-Republican rhetorical violence a secondary sideshow.
Claims of media bias became a major theme of the night, with Cruz letting loose the night's first scathing barrage against moderators Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood.
ATTACK THE MODERATORS! Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (right) drew wild applause for reciting a list of CNBC anchors' questions that he said 'illustrate why the American people don't trust the media'
Nobody watching at home believes that any of the moderators have any intention of voting in a Republican primary!' he charged.
'The questions asked so far illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. This is not a cage match,' Cruz said
'Look at the questions: "Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?" "Ben Carson, can you do math?" "John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?" "Marco Rubio, why don't you resign?" "Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?"'
'How about talking about the substantive issues that people care about?'
Cruz earned the night's loudest single wave of applause for that outburst.
Rubio followed him with additional slams on the U.S. political press corps after Trump demanded an end to 'scam' super PACs that 'are causing some very bad decisions to be made by some very good people.'
'The Democrats have their own super PAC,' Rubio claimed. 'It's called the mainstream media.'
And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had few spotlight moments, lit into the moderators for asking a question about whether the federal government should regulate pay-for-play fantasty football competitions online.
'Wait a second,' he said, firing rhetorical bullets at the CNBC anchor desk: 'We have $19 trillion in debt, people out of work, ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us – and we're talking about fantasy football?'
'How about we get the government to do what they’re supposed to be doing?' an agitated Christie shouted. 'Enough on fantasy football. Let people play! Who cares?'
Moments earlier, Christie had lit into moderator John Harwood for interrupting him in mid-answer.
'Even in New Jersey,' he said, 'what you're doing is called "rude".'
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus ended the evening castigating CNBC.
'While I was proud of our candidates and the way they handled tonight’s debate, the performance by the CNBC moderators was extremely disappointing,' he said, 'and did a disservice to their network, our candidates, and voters.
'CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled,' Priebus added on Twitter.