President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will now face off one-on-one in the first presidential debate, which will be televised by CNN the following week, after Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was unable to advance.
Kennedy had only achieved the CNN polling criterion of 15% in three surveys prior to the deadline, and had not met it in at least four authorized national polls. Additionally, he failed to meet the network’s ballot requirements, which called for candidates to gain admission in enough states to garner 270 electoral votes—a noteworthy undertaking for a third party at this stage of the election campaign.
Kennedy is presently on the ballot in ten states, but in a few more, he is awaiting application windows or verification status, according to an investigation by NBC News. Kennedy’s long-shot bid to overtake the presumed major party nominees may suffer if he is unable to appear on stage the following week.
“My exclusion by Presidents Biden and Trump from the debate is undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly,” Kennedy said. “Americans want an independent leader who will break apart the two-party duopoly. They want a President who will heal the divide, restore the middle class, unwind the war machine, and end the chronic disease epidemic.”
Kennedy’s campaign claimed last month that the Biden and Trump camps, as well as CNN, had illegally arranged the June 27 presidential debate in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission. The campaign’s communications secretary, Stefanie Spear, stated that the organization is “considering” taking additional legal action prior to debate night.
“President Trump said repeatedly he had no problem debating RFK Jr. and he believes any candidate who qualifies for the ballot should be allowed to make their case to America’s voters,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated.
She added, “It’s Joe Biden and the Democrats who are using financial and legal resources to prevent RFK’s access to the ballot because they know RFK Jr. is a radical leftist who pulls more votes from Biden than President Trump.”
