CBS Democratic Debate 2015: Paris Shootings Force Station To Change Format, While Presidential Candidates Respond To Slaughter In France

The terror attacks in Paris have stimulated a shift in politics on issues of security, immigration and terrorism and have forced CBS to change the format of Saturday night’s Democratic debate to include questions about Friday’s shootings in the French capital that saw 129 people killed and over 350 injured.

“It is the right time to ask all the related questions that come to mind,” said Steve Capus, executive editor of CBS News, according to a New York Times report. “We think we have a game plan to address a lot of the substantive and important topics.”

According to Capus, the TV station was in the middle of a rehearsal for the debate when news broke about the attacks in Paris. Capus said it was important for the debate to go on because the world looks to the American president for leadership during international crises.

While some GOP candidates were criticized for politicizing the attacks as they were happening and in the immediate aftermath, most of the overall field offered somber reactions.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton said that her thoughts were with those in Paris, while her rivals Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley also offered near identical responses.

The Republicans candidates offered similar responses, but many included language that said the U.S. would stand with France against the perpetrators and those that are working with them. Donald Trump offered a barrage of tweets aimed at U.S. President Obama and overall White House leadership, while Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush took direct aim at the Islamic State group. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee used the attacks in Paris to call for a closure of the U.S. border, to build a strong coalition to destroy ISIS and to revoke the Iran nuclear deal, he noted in an email Saturday.

While the presidential candidates did not bring the controversial topic of gun control into light, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and 2012 presidential candidate said that the people in the Bataclan theater would have survived if they’d had weapons.