Democrats don’t get to run as the party of “democracy” while keeping the election’s most prominent third-party candidate off the debate stage. That’s in addition to the cascade of lawfare launched to thwart the campaign of their top challenger this fall.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed last week to engage in two debates this year, a departure from the traditional three held in the weeks before Election Day. The first will be held June 27 in a forum moderated by CNN. The second will be on Sept. 10 with moderators from ABC. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. remains absent from the lineup, and not because of Trump.
In an interview with Scripps News last week, the former Republican president said he would have “no problem” with Kennedy joining the debate “if he got whatever the threshold is.” To qualify, candidates must be on the ballot in enough states to capture 270 electoral votes and must hit 15 percent support in four national polls by June 20.
Big media and the Democrats, however, are conspiring to keep Kennedy out. CNN is only counting surveys conducted after March 13. Of those, Kennedy has eclipsed the 15 percent benchmark in only two. If the network included polls released since the start of the new year, however, Kennedy would meet the polling requirement, according to RealClearPolitics’ aggregate of surveys.
The third-party candidate must also prove he has ballot access in enough states to win the election. But NBC reports
