As the presidential nominees of the country’s two major political parties have agreed to a debate format, third-party hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is claiming he is facing collusion.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed to two presidential debates, one in June and another in September. However, Biden’s campaign had a series of demands, including not wanting Kennedy Jr. to be in the debates.
In response, the long shot candidate posted on X, “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.”
“Forty-three percent of Americans identify as independents. If Americans are ever going to escape the hammerlock of the two-party system, now is the time to do it. These are the two most unpopular candidates in living memory,” he continued.
Finally, Kennedy Jr. added, “By excluding me from the stage, Presidents Biden and Trump seek to avoid discussion of their eight years of mutual failure including deficits, wars, lockdowns, chronic disease, and inflation.”
Presidents Trump and Biden are colluding to lock America into a head-to-head match-up that 70% say they do not want.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 15, 2024
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.…
In a letter obtained by The New York Times, the Biden campaign proposed holding two debates, one as early as late-June and the other in early-September.
In a video posted on X Wednesday morning, Biden said, “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate.”
His comment refers to Trump’s decision to skip every debate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
“Now, he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” he added.
Speaking to Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Trump said, “I’m ready to go… The dates that they proposed are fine… Let’s see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium.”
“The proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me. I will provide my own transportation,” he added.
The Biden campaign said in its proposal that the president is willing to debate Trump twice ahead of the election. However, it also expressed a desire that the debates be scheduled well ahead of when voting begins — even as early as June. It proposed hold the second debate in “early September at the start of the fall campaign season, early enough to influence early voting, but not so late as to require the candidates to leave the campaign trail in the critical late September and October period.”
Additionally, the campaign said it wants the debate to occur in a TV studio, without an audience, and have microphones that will automatically cut off the candidate when their time is up, and they do not want to have third-party hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. included.
The Times also noted, “The letter, signed by Mr. Biden’s campaign chair, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, and addressed to the Commission on Presidential Debates, notifies the group that Mr. Biden will not be participating in the three general-election debates sponsored by the commission, which are scheduled for Sept. 16, Oct. 1 and Oct. 9.”
As for the networks that would host the debate, the Biden campaign suggested only networks that held a Republican primary debate in 2016 and a Democratic primary debate in 2020 should be able to host one in 2024. The Times points out, “Networks that meet that mark include CBS News, ABC News, CNN and Telemundo.”
