The Hotline has this commentary by John Fund about the CNN debate rules. Here is the text:
“CTUP Senior Fellow, John Fund, is featured in the Wall Street Journal today, discussing CNN’s decision to include Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the presidential debate, but not Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr. failed to be the first independent candidate to make a presidential debate stage in 32 years. CNN said he failed to meet their conditions for inclusion: he only hit a 15 percent level of support in three rather than the needed four national polls, and he wasn’t on enough state ballots to potentially win the presidency.
As a news organization, CNN executives say they have the right to set their own standards. But in the spirit of transparency and fairness they should answer questions about how far they stretched to accommodate the wishes of the major parties who wanted RFK Jr. to be excluded. The CNN debate created a Catch-22 that made it impossible for Kennedy or any alternative candidate to reach the debate stage:
In May, Donald Trump told Scripps News he had “no problem” with Kennedy joining the debate. But a Trump official told the Washington Post that a CNN producer had promised that “RFK will not be on the stage.”
A Biden adviser told Axios in May: “Our criteria for a 1:1 debate was made clear publicly, it was made clear to CNN and they understood our position when we accepted their offer.”
CNN has declined to answer media inquiries on details of their negotiations.
What we do know is that CNN’s criteria would have excluded independent Ross Perot, who did participate in the 1992 debates, because he was only on states with 119 electoral votes as of mid-June that year. Perot, who won 19 percent of the national vote in 1992, was finished petitioning in many more states by June of that year, but state election offices didn’t verify all of his signatures until mid-September.
Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, told me it is “irrational” to demand RFK meet a ballot access requirement because he has already filed signatures in states with 310 electoral votes and is almost certain to eventually be on all 50 state ballots.
Winger disagrees: “Actually, Trump and Biden aren’t currently on ANY state ballots because they haven’t even been nominated yet,” he says.
The now sidelined Commission on Presidential Debates, which ran every general-election debate between 1988 and this year agrees: “Until the conventions take place, we don’t know who the official nominees will be.”
There have been many times the two major parties colluded to exclude any outside voices from speaking directly to the American people. What’s different is that it now appears a media organization has cooperated with them.
The second and final presidential debate is now scheduled for September 10 on ABC, which hasn’t released its qualifying requirements. It has a chance to open up the process with fair rules, but few believe it will.
If RFK Jr is excluded from both debates that may be legal. But entrenching the two-party system also damages voters and the “democracy” that both major parties claim they are fighting to preserve.”
ANY RE-RUNS CHANNEL —
HAVING 2 OR MORE THIRDS/INDEES FOR PREZ IN A *LIVE* *DEBATE* —
IE A FOOD FIGHT AS IN ANIMAL HOUSE MOVIE EARLY 1980S ???
“Trump and Biden aren’t currently on ANY state ballots because they haven’t even been nominated yet”
That is the ironclad argument that the MSM keeps ignoring. Sure, you can argue that it’s a mere technicality, but then CNN are technically violating their own rules, nonetheless.
And looking at Biden’s rapidly deteriorating condition, I’m not sure that it is merely a technicality: I can totally see the Democrats coming up with some way to substitute someone else at the last minute.
BOTH D/R GANGS CAN REPLACE B/T ANYTIME NOW TO ELECTION DAY
— DUE TO DEATH / BRAIN ROT / ETC.
AFTER THAT THE 12 AMDT EC HACKS CAN PICK WHOEVER.
AFTER THAT THE NEW 2025 USA H REPS MAY PICK WHOEVER.
LEVELS OF MINORITY RULE MACHINATIONS — IN THE EC SUPER-TIMEBOMB PROCESS.
The demon rats won’t substitute. If they could, they would have already. They can’t pass up Willie Brown’s Ho, and she’s somehow even less popular than Beijing Biden.
A Trump official told WaPoo what CCPNN told him, but not because the Trump campaign asked for it – because Quisling Biden made it a non negotiable demand, and since XiNN and Senile Dementia Joe both work for Xi, it was like negotiating with himself.
The inclusion of presumptive nominees, while petitioning candidates are held to state certification and not submission, is a hypocritical double standard and an intentionally impossible hurdle. The fact that Kennedy also fell short in the much more achievable polling criterion hurts his chances of post facto legal relief.injunctive relief seems implausible with a week to go.
Here’s hoping traitor Biden and XiNN execs get death penalties for treason after a fair trial during the second Trump term, and XiNN gets a corporate death penalty.
Trump will show how smart he is if he sets up a debate with Kennedy on a competing media network. Fox has the biggest reach. This is all irrespective of how imperfect Trump, Kennedy, and Fox are. They don’t need to be perfect or anywhere close to it to save us from the Red Chinese menace that’s at our door and inside our white house and corporate and infotainment board rooms.
RFK Jr. may eventually make all 50 ballots, but his extremely slow start (8 or so ballots in the first seven months since his October announcement) has now cost him dearly.
He’ll make 50. If you look at what has been completed as opposed to certified by states, https://www.kennedy24.com/ballot-access currently shows 20+ states and 310 electors, with almost every other state at some stage of completion.
No one foresaw June debates in October, or for that matter until it was announced (last month)? Prior to that, the strategy was to give demon rat shylocks and shysters less time to pick apart state submissions with frivolous challenges and lawsuits.
The Democratic Party and its activists are treating Kennedy bad. I think they want to turn America into a one party system. No opposition, no competitors, no opinions against them.
John Taylor Bowles makes a great point at 0537.
@Richard
Where can I find the Hotline source content?
Mr. Bowles: you say that like it’s a bad thing.
Sorry, Comrade Bowles. Sometimes latent capitalist figures of speech are hard to oovercome. As a fellow socialist, albeit national, I’m sure you understand, right?
ps did I tell you how cute you look in uniform?! Omg, I’m, like, melting!
Bobobo has made a great point. The Democrats want to turn this country into a one-party socialist state.
Comrade Roos, it appears to be behind a paywall. Look up national journal hotline.
Comrade Bowles ( any combination of BO ):
YES, you make a good point. Also, that’s exactly what we should do!
Ps you’re smoking hot! I love a spermperson in uniform! Sizzle!
Johnny on the bowl is John Taylor Bowles. Can’t fool us. So is Karen, so is DNC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC. Hey, everybody posting is John Taylor Bowles except Stock. lol
If you insist on misgendering me, comrade troll, wouldn’t I be Comrade Stock? Another(?) troll here insists I am.
In fact, I’m Karen, not either of you,but I would totally cum play with either or both! You damn right I’m that slutty hoe!
It doesn’t matter who I am, but “papa” is John Taylor Bowles.
Comrade Bowl, are you into water sports?
Comrade Bowles,please don’t be salty that your getting named. You’re not being shamed. I think you’re hot! It’s just that you gave away too many autobiographical details under your various names and became easy to recognize. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn’t be ashamed to be me if I was you!
You can call me Massa Johnny, or just Massa. I’m onto water sports if you like to play the catcher position. I can definitely play water sports with Karen’s. I can also play water sports with high melanin females if thats all we do.
You know, if CNN does exclude RFK from the debate, Elon Musk should stream RFK’s live commentary on the debate, giving his own answers and criticizing those of Biden and Trump. Let’s see who gets more viewers X or CNN…
Good idea.
Thanks. This actually ended up pretty much happening.
RFK live-streamed his responses to the debate questions on X and Rumble, pausing the CNN feed to insert his answers, moderated by John Stossel according to the same rules that Biden and Trump had to:
https://rumble.com/v545lnn-the-real-debate.html
On X Kennedy’s stream was viewed almost seven million times. According to BAN user Bobby G (I don’t know where he got these figures), Kennedy got a total of thirteen million viewers, whereas CNN itself on got eight million (not counting re-streaming by other outlets and on other media).
*Biden and Trump had to follow
*CNN itself only got