Biden-Trump Presidential Debate Tentatively Set For June 27 Might Possibly include Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Posted on by May 15, 2024

CNN hopes to sponsor a debate between President Biden and former President Trump on June 27, Thursday, in Atlanta. There is a tentative agreement. If Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is at 15% in the polls as of June 20, and if he can show that he is ballot-qualified in states with at least 270 electoral votes, he is also invited.

The date of this debate is far earlier than any past general election presidential debate. All the others have been in October or late September.

Comments

Biden-Trump Presidential Debate Tentatively Set For June 27 Might Possibly include Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — 46 Comments

  1. Kennedy seems to be self-reporting as on-ballot whenever his campaign has enough signatures in hand. Is it likely 270 elector’s worth of states will have officially certified him by that date?

  2. Richard, arn’t debates hosted directly by tv networks not exempt from the equal time rule? Accordingly, by hosting the debates directly, CNN and ABC news could be forced to provide RFK, JR. and the Libertarian Party candidate with comparable free air time?

  3. HOW MANY FOLKS ARE NOW MAIL THEIR ABS BALLOTS BACK THE SAME/NEXT DAY THEY GET THEM ???

    HOW QUICK CAN THE DNC/RNC ASSEMBLE AND REPLACE ANY DEAD/ILL BIDEN/TRUMP ???

  8. The Free Time Act doesn’t apply to “bona fide news events”, so the Act effectively has no meaning any longer, except to interfere with candidates to happen to make a living as broadcasters from running for office.

  10. Professor Derek Muller points out at Election Law Blog that Biden and Trump aren’t on the ballot in any states so far, and won’t be until they have been nominated. Both major party nominations are after this debate, so if the debate sponsors will need to amend their criteria to say “likely to be on the ballot in states with 270 electoral votes”.

  11. Richard, I’ve checked the media on this and don’t see anything like: “If Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is at 15% in the polls as of June 20, and if he can show that he is ballot-qualified in states with at least 270 electoral votes, he is also invited.”

    If fact, RFK, Jr has already taken to social media to protest the exclusion of independent candidates from the debates. The polling threshold was something established by the Commission on Presidential Debates after pressure from independents. I think this proposed debate is a private deal between the major parties who are looking to exclude independent candidates.

  12. Any debate should include all candidates who are on the ballot with at least 270 electoral votes, regardless of poll numbers.

  13. On the ballot is not clearly defined. It presumes Biden and Trump will be nominated, which is extremely likely, but doesn’t happen until well after the debate in June. At that point, they are not on the ballot anywhere.

    Kennedy may well be on the ballot unofficially in more than enough states at that point, but not yet certified for the ballot. How would CNN know if his claimed signature totals are accurate, whether enough of them are valid, or whether some other challenge will keep him off which state ballots?

  14. According to a story on CNN’s front page right now, Kennedy just needs 15% in four polls from a list of pollsters provided by CNN, which is plausible as that is much easier than a 15% average. The article also states that Trump and Biden “will qualify” and have agreed to the debate, so presumably any party on the ballot in states representing 270 electoral votes can have one of its probable nominees present if they poll high enough.

  15. Even if Kennedy submits his signatures to states earlier than he planned, states don’t necessarily have to check them right away, and Democrats can hold things up by challenges and lawsuits.

  17. Since Quinnapiac and CNN polls dating from March 13, 2024 onward are included among those to be utilized for determining the 15 percent threshold. It appears that Kennedy already has two out of the 4 polls required to meet the debate threshold.

  18. Kennedy has hit 15% and 16% in two of those polls, so needs two more to hit that criteria. An objective determination of who has ballot access in who has ballot access in what state in June is a much bigger X factor or problem.

  20. Yahoo News is not a news source at all. It’s an aggregator of stories from fake news sources, like Google News.

  25. From USA TOday: Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy, an independent candidate running a distant third for president, will not be joining Biden and Trump on the debate stage.

    Among its criteria, the Biden campaign said the debate should also be “one-on-one,” allowing voters to compare the only two candidates with any statistical chance of prevailing in the Electoral College.”

  26. 1 AMDT SUBVERTED DUE TO GOVT LICENSES FOR TV CHANNELS — LIMITED EM SPECTRUM.

    ANY *DEBATE* IN OLDE PRINT MEDIA [COULD BE ZILLION QUESTIONS – INITIAL / RESPONSE / 3RD / 4TH/ ETC] ] —- NOOOOO 1 AMDT SUBVERSION ???

  28. The Equal Time Rule is in force (with exceptions, as noted above). We used it a couple of years ago to get 30 minutes of free time every week on several radio stations in Oregon that were broadcasting a weekly radio show hosted by our opposing candidate. But I believe it applies only to broadcast stations. CNN is not that.

  29. Isn’t June well before either Trump or Biden are nominated by their respective political parties?!

  30. CNN desperately trying to avoid having Biden debate RFK. Trump would be a fool to boost CNN viewership number by debating on their circus.

    Let Trump debate RFK at the LNC, and let talk himself into knot on his own on CNN.

  32. Trump and Biden have both made clear they won’t debate Kennedy, so whether he meets CNN’s criteria is kind of a moot question. If he does and they invite him, Trump and Biden simply won’t show up, and nothing can make them.

  33. As awful as CPD was, and as welcome as its demise is, the focus on it by third party candidates was always a bit misplaced. It’s not really about the debate hosts or sponsors. It’s about the fact that the Ds and Rs don’t want to debate RFK or Gary Johnson or Ralph Nader or Kanye West, and they simply won’t participate in any debate that invites them. 1992 was the sole exception because Bush and Clinton both thought Perot hurt the other more, that’s why it happened that year. That hasn’t been the case in any election since and it certainly isn’t the case with RFK; both major-party campaigns think he hurts their guy more.

    The most you’ll ever get out of a third party candidate qualifying (absent an unusual and unlikely 1992 scenario) is a bit of embarrassment and a minor story when both major-party candidates withdraw and, if they want, go do their own debate elsewhere.

  34. Let RFK Jr qualify for the CPD debates and be the only who shows up. Three 90-minute stand-up interviews where Kennedy blasts his opponents for not being willing to face him. Peak TV.

  35. If CNN wanted to do 90-minute interviews with the brain worm guy, they can do that right now. They aren’t because nobody wants to watch that and it’s not good for ad sales. People tune in to the debates because they’re major news events with the major candidates participating; it’s not like that’s a captive audience you otherwise get regardless of what’s actually on. In the grand scheme of things, not that many people are watching CNN (or Fox or NBC or any of the others) on any random night just because it’s their favorite channel. If people want to watch an RFK interview, they can already go on YouTube and listen to him rambling at Joe Rogan about how covid was designed to spare the Jews or whatever.

  37. Good Lord. Why are people still quoting USSR Yesterday fake news site? If it was just the AZ bot, that would be one thing, but we have the XiNN link directly above which states their debate criteria, and someone else is still quoting the USSR Yesterday disinformation. People are just being lazy and not clicking links.

  38. Biden has said he’s not debating Kennedy. Where has Trump said that? Unless someone has a link or evidence where Trump said this – it could still be Trump vs Kennedy if Kennedy qualifies. In which case Biden pulls out.

    XiNN may have to accept Kennedy as being on the ballot where he has enough signatures but they’re not officially certified, since they’re accepting that Biden and Trump will be the nominees before they are officially nominated.

    So, all he has to do is get 15% in two more of the polls XiNN selected and it becomes Trump vs Kennedy instead of Trump vs Biden.

  39. Dave: all the time. The opponents are worms. No word as to whether they’re any kin to the worm that starved to death trying to eat Kennedy’s brain.

  40. Observer, where has Kennedy said anything antisemitic? He’s more pro Israel than either Trump or Biden.

  41. Observer with the fake news lol.

    RFK Jr. is Pro-Israel 100% and that’s a great thing. This was a major reason for him to break out from the Democrat Party that has been taken over by Jew haters.
    Also, remember his father was murdered because he stood with Israel. If Rfk Jr. Wasn’t Pro Israel I would probably vote for Trump. But the biggest reason to vote for Kennedy is he was right about the Plandemic and the poison covid shot. Kennedy actually fights Big Pharma, and our poison Food Industry. They are poisoning us at every turn. Trump is owned by Big Pharma as is Dementia Joe of course.

  42. No he’s not. Trump will surprise a lot of you in the second term and be way, way better than in the first. And yes, there will be a second term. But he needs to be elected first, so it won’t become obvious until next year. Then he’ll get better and better throughout the term.

  43. The Libertarian candidate could end up being….Robert F. Kennedy. Yes he said that he was no longer seeking to be it’s candidate (possibly to reassure the local political parties that have backed him until now that their backing of him won’t go to waste). He is still going to the Libertarian convention next week. Should be interesting. 😎

  44. I have a feeling that if there are any polls which show RFK Jr. at 15%, those polls will wind up being excluded from consideration and only the polls where he is below 15% will be counted by CNN.

  45. @Joe
    While RFK’s vaccine stance will appeal to the Mises Caucus, it will alienate the LINOs.
    Contrarily, his positions on climate change and abortion will do the exact opposite: appealing to the LINOs and putting off the Mises Caucus.
    His support for Israel will lose him the support of pacifists and isolationists, as well as of antisemites.
    And his varying takes on LGBTQ+ related issues and taxation will piss off pretty much everyone in the Libertarian Party.

    Having declined to seek LP nomination, I very much doubt he will be given the opportunity. Although, perhaps how far the LP is willing to go to stick it to both the unhinged Bidenite DINOs and the unhinged Trumpist RINOs. We shall see.

  46. Joe: nope, especially not with Shannahan, and in fact it’s not that clear that he’s actually even going, given that they have not announced it on their schedule. He doesn’t want the public embarrassment of losing their nomination, getting a different VP, or getting the nomination and having it pulled later. It’s not going to happen.

    Joshua: CNN has already announced which polling companies qualify , and said any 4 polls from those companies within the qualifying period, which goes back to March. 2 polls already qualify. Kennedy needs 2 more. However, Biden has his own conflicting criteria, which specifically say no third candidates. So, presumably, if Kennedy qualifies, Biden pulls out.

    I think at that point, it’s in Trump’s interest to elevate Kennedy by debating him. Kennedy is a lifelong Democrat, was running for their nomination as recently as a few months ago, and is leftist on most issues. Both Trump and Biden have a lot of soft support – more opposition to the other than actual support – but Trump has a lot more hardcore support than Biden, who has virtually none.

    Clearly, it’s in Trump’s interest to debate and elevate Kennedy, since Kennedy would then hurt Biden much more than Trump, thus helping Trump on net.

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