The media are in quite a snit Tuesday afternoon after learning that Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat, did something that more GOP candidates should think about doing: he said "hard pass" to a debate with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed because the moderator is a leftist hack.

And Rogers has the receipts to prove it.

The Republican announced he will not participate in Tuesday night's FOX 2 Detroit debate, with his campaign pointing the finger squarely at moderator Roop Raj and what it describes as Raj's demonstrated history of “bias and favoritism” toward El-Sayed.

"Michiganders deserve to see their candidates engage in a healthy, fair debate — not one compromised by media bias," said Alyssa Brouillet, communications director in a statement. "Roop Raj has made his position clear, from praising Abdul as ‘brilliant,’ to being celebrated by Hasan Piker as ‘my GOAT,’ and bragging about his political stunts. Mike looks forward to making his case to working families and to making Abdul answer to voters for the conman he is."

The Rogers campaign also pointed out Raj's disastrous handling of a Republican gubernatorial primary debate, as well as the fact that far-left streamer and El-Sayed BFF Hasan Piker – whose stench the Democrat candidate can't seem to shake – has praised Raj in the past.

This isn't to say that Rogers isn't willing to debate – he will square off against El-Sayed Oct. 8 on WOOD TV8 and again Oct. 21 on WXYZ – he's just not willing to walk into a debate that is rigged against him by yet another far-left activist masquerading as a journalist.

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Roop Raj does not seem to be taking the news very well, writing on X, "Curating social media ads and then appearing on network cable channels of their political leaning for easy interviews does nothing for the electorate back here in Michigan."

Yeah, well neither does a debate purposely rigged to favor one candidate, especially when the moderator has previously called that candidate "brilliant."

After the Rogers campaign's criticism became public, Raj defended himself, saying he and Rogers have had a “very good, fair and productive conversation on many occasions.”

“I respect his experience and leadership,” Raj wrote. “I hope he is able to make time for this debate. I’ll do my job with integrity and responsibility as I always strive to do. I certainly hope you will do the same when messaging here.”

Republicans have spent years grumbling about hostile debate moderators, participating in those poorly-moderated debates anyway, and then complaining after the fact when things go exactly as they feared.

Perhaps it's time that more GOP candidates to do like Mike Rogers and take a stand against these biased debate formats. If a candidate believes the referee has already picked a team, why should he or she spend an hour pretending otherwise?