He’s blaming his shortcomings on others.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., running as an independent candidate, alleged that Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump were colluding to prevent his participation in the debates they had agreed to attend on Wednesday.
Biden and Trump announced their acceptance of invitations for presidential debates hosted by CNN on June 27 and ABC News on Sept. 10, respectively.
However, Kennedy does not currently meet CNN’s criteria to qualify for the Atlanta debate. Stefanie Spear, Kennedy’s campaign press secretary, informed NBC News that Kennedy would participate in a debate with Biden and Trump if he meets CNN’s requirements. Kennedy expressed his frustration about being excluded from the initial general election debate in a post on social media platform X.
Kennedy stated in his post, “Presidents Trump and Biden are colluding to lock America into a head-to-head match-up that 70% say they do not want. They are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win. Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy.”
Kennedy has surpassed CNN’s 15% polling threshold in two out of four qualifying polls. However, the network also requires participants to “appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency prior to the eligibility deadline.”
While ABC News has not disclosed its debate criteria, CNN’s guidelines resemble those set by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) for its events.
The CPD, which traditionally hosts the general election debates, has maintained similar criteria since the 2000 cycle. In 2000, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader criticized the CPD’s criteria, which prevented them from participating in the debates.
Many state deadlines for independent candidates to gain ballot access fall after CNN’s scheduled debate. For instance, in Ohio, Kennedy’s campaign has confirmed gathering the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot. However, the campaign plans to delay submitting signatures for certification until closer to Ohio’s state deadline on Aug. 7.
Earlier this week, Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, announced their qualification for the ballot in Texas. Yet, a spokesperson for the Texas secretary of state revealed that although the campaign has submitted the petitions, they are still under review.
In a recent interview, Kennedy disclosed to Raymond Arroyo of the Catholic network EWTN that his campaign avoids immediately submitting signatures in some states to evade additional scrutiny from the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Kennedy remarked, “The DNC has its enormous operation, they had $3 billion to spend to try to keep us off the ballot. We are not releasing our signatures until the last minute because it just gives them you know, more targets to hit, much shorter period of time.”
According to the campaign’s website’s ballot tracker, Kennedy could presently qualify for 187 electoral votes based on its tally in states where signatures have been gathered.
