Dear Reince,

Last night’s debate was a complete mess. It was like we were watching the lost chapters of The Hunger Games in which the Capitol elites bring together district leaders in the hopes that they will destroy each other. Fortunately, most of them could see through it and called the moderators on their thinly-veiled antagonism, but that couldn’t save that mess of a debate.

When it was over, you seemed mystified by what you had just seen:

CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled. #GOPDebate

— Reince Priebus (@Reince) October 29, 2015

Here’s the thing: as chairman of the Republican National Committee, this is on you. What in the world did you expect?

You said yes to a debate on CNBC. A channel which is notoriously biased against Republicans. Of course, it’s the moderators that really determine the direction of the debate. You agreed to John Harwood, who has spoken negatively about the very candidates on stage, saying that Rubio would look “like a schoolboy” next to Hillary Clinton and had Rand Paul on only to repeat negative press about him. He asked Barack Obama if he could “break the fever” within the Republican Party and said that concern over the Benghazi scandal was just political “bitterness.” Essentially, you let a Twitter troll moderate a debate, and then you wondered why it went wrong.

The questions were nothing short of antagonistic, worded specifically to make the candidates look bad or foolish. For example, Ben Carson was asked about a company that used his image without his permission, saying that it spoke to his ability to vet, a question which drew loud boos from the audience.

About Trump, Harwood asked, “Let’s be honest: Is this the comic book version of a presidential campaign?” Becky Quick went after Marco Rubio for having the financial struggles the average American faces, as though it was personally offensive to her that someone born without a silver spoon in his mouth would dare to run for president. When Christie suggested that a question about, of all things, fantasy football, was not the best use of debate time, Harwood went on to ask Christie a series of questions, without giving him a chance to answer one before asking the next. Christie fired back, “John, do you want me to answer or do you want to answer? How are we going to do this? Because I got to tell you the truth: Even in New Jersey, what you are doing is called rude.” The candidates had had enough.

Thank goodness for the candidates who didn’t take the nonsense of the moderators, and called them on their ridiculous and antagonistic questions. But why were they in that position? Because you agreed to it. You know what the media is like, you know what those moderators are like, and you said ok.

Last night, you tweeted this:

I will fight to ensure future debates allow for a more robust exchange. #GOPDebate

— Reince Priebus (@Reince) October 29, 2015

So, my question is simple: Did you learn anything from last night’s debacle? It is bad enough that it happened in the primary, but it must not be allowed to happen in the general election. Say no to biased networks and biased moderators. It is time for Republicans to stop playing on an uneven field when they don’t have to. Do you think the DNC would agree to a debate on Fox moderated by Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity? Of course not, and they shouldn’t. Only reporters (not opinion writers or commentators) who are able to do their job in a straightforward way should be considered. This isn’t brain surgery (just ask Dr. Carson). It should be the most obvious thing in the world.

Should CNBC be embarrassed by last night’s display? Of course. But it went exactly as we all knew it would. Everyone, apparently, except you, who agreed to it. All you had to do was say no.

So do it. Stand up for the party and for conservatives, and don’t let it happen again. But, of course, you will. Because, while I want to think that you learned last night that the GOP needs to demand a fair debate, I don’t have a lot of hope.

Please prove me wrong.