One person who was not happy to hear President Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to debate each other? Independent presidential candidate and brain worm conqueror Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Shortly after news of the debates broke Wednesday, Kennedy took to X/Twitter to claim the two most recent presidents were “colluding to lock America into a head-to-head match-up that 80% say they do not want.”
“They are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win,” Kennedy said. “Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy.”
Kennedy would be the first third-party candidate to make it onto the debate stage since Ross Perot in 1992. However, he faces a difficult path ahead, in part because of the terms agreed to by Biden and Trump.
Instead of going with the bipartisan debate commission, as was the convention, Biden and Trump brokered plans to conduct two debates, one to take place June 27 on CNN and another held Sept. 10 on NBC. The first debate, moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, requires candidates “appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency prior to the eligibility deadline.”
Kennedy’s campaign claims he has qualified for the general election ballot in several states, including Utah, Michigan, California, and Hawaii. While his campaign has engaged in efforts to make it onto the ballots of additional states, it remains far behind the 270 threshold.
Despite the prohibitory rules imposed by CNN, by Wednesday afternoon Kennedy had taken a much more optimistic tone regarding the debates and his presence at them.
“I’m happy to report that I will meet the criteria to participate in the @CNN debate before the June 20 deadline,” he wrote on X, giving no evidence for his assertion. “I look forward to holding Presidents Biden and Trump accountable for their records in Atlanta on June 27 to give Americans the debate they deserve.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Kennedy criticized Biden and Trump for “eight years of mutual failure including deficits, wars, lockdowns, chronic disease, and inflation.”
Whether or not the independent candidate will be on the stage next month — or if the debate will happen at all, for that matter — remains to be seen.
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