Impartial Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t qualify for the primary presidential debate, hosted by CNN subsequent week, formally establishing a one-on-one showdown between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
CNN published an article Thursday morning The community’s window for candidates to satisfy the factors for the June 27 debate in Atlanta closed shortly after midnight ET, “with Biden and Trump assembly constitutional necessities, electoral {qualifications} and poll thresholds,” she stated. A CNN spokesperson confirmed that Kennedy was ineligible.
Kennedy didn’t attain CNN’s polling threshold of 15% in at the very least 4 licensed nationwide polls, having solely reached that mark in three polls earlier than the deadline. It additionally failed to satisfy the community’s polling requirements, which require candidates to safe entry to sufficient states to win 270 electoral votes, an vital process for a 3rd occasion at this level within the election cycle.
In line with an NBC Information evaluation, Kennedy is presently on the poll in 10 states, however has been held up in verification or submitting home windows in a couple of others.
Kennedy’s absence from the stage subsequent week will likely be a blow to his long-running marketing campaign as he seeks to win assist from the presumptive main occasion nominees.
“Excluding Presidents Biden and Trump from the controversy is undemocratic, un-American and cowardly,” Kennedy stated in a press release Thursday afternoon. “Individuals need an unbiased chief who will break the two-party monopoly. They need a president who will heal division, restore the center class, dismantle the warfare machine, and finish the epidemic of power illnesses.”
Final month, the Kennedy marketing campaign filed a lawsuit Federal Election Commission Complaint towards CNN and the Biden and Trump campaigns, alleging that the best way they organized the June 27 presidential debate was unlawful. Stephanie Speier, the marketing campaign’s press secretary, stated she was “contemplating” additional authorized motion earlier than debate night time.
“President Trump has repeatedly stated he has no drawback discussing RFK Jr. and believes any ballot-qualified candidate needs to be allowed to make his case earlier than American voters,” Carolyn Leavitt, nationwide press secretary for the Trump marketing campaign, stated in a press release Thursday. “It’s Joe Biden and the Democrats who’re utilizing monetary and authorized sources to dam Robert Kennedy’s entry to the poll as a result of they know that Robert Kennedy Jr. is a far-left extremist who attracts extra votes from Biden than from President Trump.”
Kennedy has already used the prospect of being faraway from the stage to argue that the election was rigged towards exterior politicians, along with his marketing campaign spending $100,000 in tv advertisements on the day of the controversy.
Kennedy nonetheless has an opportunity to qualify for the controversy scheduled for September 10, hosted by ABC Information. This debate has the identical polling and entry requirements as CNN, though it’s unclear when the polling window will open. This may even purchase Kennedy further time to safe entry to extra ballots throughout the nation.
