Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is furious at being left out of the fast-action morning chest-thumping between former President Donald Trump and President Biden over their upcoming debates.
The independent presidential candidate complained soon after Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, agreed to square off without him in a Georgia debate hosted by CNN on June 27 and another hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10.
“Presidents Trump and Biden are colluding to lock America into a head-to-head match-up that 70% say they do not want,” Kennedy bemoaned on X.
“They are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win,” he claimed, optimistically given recent polling.
“Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy. Forty-three percent of Americans identify as independents.”
Biden-Harris campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon penned a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, insisting that the “squandering debate time on candidates with no prospect of becoming president.”
However, in its announcement, CNN revealed that the prerequisite will be for candidates to “receive at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that meet CNN’s standards for reporting.”
Kennedy is averaging 10.8% in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling.
“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,” Kennedy 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.”
Biden sparked the debate furor with a Wednesday morning taunt against Trump in a video posted to X.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal,” Biden taunted in the clip.
Kenedy’s vice presidential pick, Nicole Shanahan, quickly backed him up.
“When @RobertKennedyJr debates these two troubled Presidents, he will win bigly,” she posted on X.
Biden’s team requested that a debate be limited to just the candidates and a moderator, eschewing the traditional audience. Additionally, the campaign insisted that the microphones only be live when candidates are speaking — to preclude Trump from interrupting.
Trump, who skipped all 2024 GOP verbal rumbles, has long needled Biden over the debates, issuing perennial taunts and chiding that the president was too scared to face him.
He wasted little time accepting Biden’s challenge. And when Biden followed up by revealing an invite he had from CNN, Trump quickly accepted that as well.
The debate is now slated for Atlanta, Georgia at 9 p.m. on June 27, sidestepping the planned trio of verbal bouts the CPD had slated for the fall.
