Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to qualify for next Thursday’s presidential debate in Atlanta, according to host network CNN.
The independent candidate for the American presidential election is notably excluded because he does not obtain sufficient voting intentions in the polls. The June 27 debate will therefore take place only between the Democratic President, Joe Biden, and the presumptive Republican candidate, Donald Trump.
Mr. Kennedy is thus deprived of a unique opportunity to stand alongside the two main candidates in the hope of legitimizing his long-announced candidacy and convincing his potential supporters that he would have a chance of winning in november.
The teams of MM. Biden and Trump fear that Robert Kennedy will muddy the waters in what is expected to be an extremely close presidential election in the United States.
In addition to CNN’s polling criteria, candidates are invited to the debate if they also received a place on the ballot in states with at least 270 Electoral College votes — the minimum required to win the U.S. presidency. .
MM. Biden and Trump easily passed the voting intention test, but they will not be presidential candidates until their parties officially nominate them later this summer. Both candidates, however, obtained enough delegates to secure their nomination.
Mr. Kennedy’s team maintains that the independent candidate met the requirements to appear on the ballot in 22 states, with a total of 310 Electoral College votes; but not all of these states have officially confirmed that his name will be included on the ballots. California, the largest on the electoral map, with 54 votes, will not “certify” any candidate before August 29.
Candidates also had to obtain at least 15% of voting intentions in four reliable national polls before June 20, another criterion that Mr. Kennedy did not reach, underlines CNN. According to the news channel, the independent candidate has received at least 15% in three of those polls so far and is currently on the electoral rolls in six states, which would give him access to just 89 electoral college votes.
Mr. Kennedy filed an election complaint last month alleging that CNN colluded with the two other candidates to exclude him from the June 27 debate. He maintained that the conditions for participation in the debate were designed to ensure that only MM. Biden and Trump would qualify and he claimed he was held to higher standards.
CNN said the complaint was baseless. Mr. Kennedy’s campaign team did not immediately respond to a message Thursday seeking comment on the CNN announcement and asking whether he planned to take further action regarding his exclusion.
Last month, MM. Biden and Trump agreed to participate in the debate on CNN on June 27 and in a second, on September 10, organized by ABC, thus bypassing the non-partisan commission which has organized these debates for almost forty years in the United States.