(UnitedVoice.com) – The last time a third-party candidate qualified for the general election debates was in 1992 when Independent Ross Perot participated in three presidential debates. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was hoping to get a shot at going against President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. He recently filed a complaint with the election committee over his exclusion from the June debate.
On May 29, Kennedy filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over issues regarding the CNN debate. The independent presidential candidate said the Biden campaign, Trump campaign, and CNN “collectively” engaged in “flagrant” violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act to prevent him from being part of the debate on June 27.
Kennedy alleges CNN “colluded” with the campaigns and scheduled a “debate with criteria that were designed to result in the selection” of only the Republican and Democratic candidates “in a clear breach of federal campaign finance law.” He went on to argue that the network is prohibited from donating to both campaigns, but both campaigns accepted the donations anyway.
The independent candidate is angry that the Trump and Biden campaigns negotiated directly with CNN and ABC to debate. Usually, the debates are facilitated by the Commission on Presidential Debates, but both parties have rejected the commission, complaining about the bias and other issues.
CNN responded to the FEC and called the allegations baseless because Kennedy had not gained enough ballot access to win the White House and didn’t meet the network’s polling criteria. A spokesperson told The Hill that almost every state has a law that guarantees “state-recognized political pat[ies] will be allowed ballot access without petitioning,” but Kennedy doesn’t belong to any of those parties.
According to CNN, a candidate must receive at least 15% in four national polls to qualify for the debate. They also have to have their names on enough ballots to receive 270 electoral votes, the number required to win the White House. Kennedy did not meet either one of those rules.
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