Joe Biden and Donald Trump are two of the least popular presidential candidates of all time. It’s no surprise that an independent presidential candidate (with a famous last name) is getting outsized attention among prospective voters. But there appears to be a strong effort to box Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from the debate stage.
As I highlighted last month right when CNN made its announcement, CNN’s “objective” criteria (the term used in federal law) to stage a debate included the requirement that “a candidate’s name must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency prior to the eligibility deadline.” As I noted, that would exclude both Biden and Trump, as neither is the party’s nominee nor has any paperwork been filed on behalf of either candidate in any state.
Recent coverage wondering if Kennedy might make the debate stage occasionally highlights this disparity, as Kennedy’s ballot access remains fairly successful but far from certain. A New York Times piece today notes (with a somewhat playful headline, “The Big Hurdle Between R.F.K. Jr. and the Debate Stage (It’s Not a Poll)”):
The Kennedy campaign has complained that the ballot access requirement to participate had set an unfair double standard for Mr. Kennedy, asserting that neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump would qualify under those rules because they have not been officially nominated by their respective parties. Amaryllis Fox, Mr. Kennedy’s campaign manager, has said that “the 270 threshold is nonsensical.”
In a statement, CNN rejected that framing, saying that “as the presumptive nominees of their parties both Biden and Trump will satisfy” the ballot access requirement, adding that “as an independent candidate, under applicable laws R.F.K. Jr. does not.”
From another statement by CNN:
The law in virtually every state provides that the nominee of a state-recognized political party will be allowed ballot access without petitioning,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. “As the presumptive nominees of their parties both Biden and Trump will satisfy this requirement. As an independent candidate, under applicable laws RFK Jr. does not. The mere application for ballot access does not guarantee that he will appear on the ballot in any state.”
This is an overt acknowledgement from CNN that it is not following its promulgated “objective” criteria. Instead, for Biden and Trump, it is altering the criteria, to allow a “presumptive nominee” (not a candidate), and to say that if these individuals “will satisfy” the requirement they qualify (not a present qualification). It’s a reason (as my earlier post points out) why the Commission on Presidential Debates scheduled its debates when it did and set the criteria as it did.
Kennedy has filed an FEC complaint to this effect. But it remains to be seen how the FEC will respond.
(It’s worth noting there is a polling requirement that Kennedy must separately meet. He has met 3 of the 4 polling requirements and might be able to meet the last one in the next several days.)
It’s no surprise that the major party candidates do not want to share the stage with a third candidate. Jimmy Carter didn’t want John Anderson on stage. After Ross Perot appeared on the debate stage in 1992, the CPD raised the polling threshold to appear from 5% to 15%. Biden and Trump would be happy to debate one another without Kennedy, I’m sure. And there are criteria that could have been designed to increase the likelihood of that happening, without this sort of error of making a standard that the staging network has to modify for two of the candidates.