RFK Jr. says exclusion from CNN debate is illegal
- RFK Jr. filed a federal complaint against CNN
- Kennedy alleges CNN made improper contributions
- Kennedy currently appears on 6 state ballots
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(NewsNation) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed a federal complaint alleging the campaigns of President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump have colluded with CNN to keep him from participating in upcoming televised debates.
Kennedy characterized the cooperation between the campaigns and the national cable news network as illegal. Kennedy told NewsNation he believes that the Biden and Trump campaigns are working with the networks hosting televised debates in an effort to keep him off the debate stage in improper ways.
Kennedy has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that CNN worked with the two campaigns to establish the criteria for the debate format. He maintains that the bar was set so high that it is virtually impossible for him to be included in the televised debates.
“Evidence leads to the clear conclusion that CNN is making prohibited corporate contributions to both campaigns and the Biden Committee and the Trump Committee have accepted these prohibited corporate contributions,” the complaint states.
Debate criteria stipulate that candidates must appear on enough state ballots to clear a path to win at least 270 electoral votes. As of now, Kennedy does not appear on enough ballots to garner those electoral votes. According to records, he is qualified to appear on six state ballots, which gives him access to 89 electoral votes.
A second piece of criteria states that a candidate must garner at least 15% of the vote in polls to participate in debates. According to recent polls, Kennedy is pulling between 10% and 13% of the vote in most polls that CNN considers legitimate.
Kennedy told NewsNation that CNN “has been very coy” about what has happened and says that election law stipulates that networks use legitimate and preexisting criteria to determine debate formats.
“They can’t decide on the criteria with the campaigns to exclude other campaigns,” Kennedy told NewsNation’s “CUOMO.” “Otherwise, it’s an illegal campaign contribution.”
Trump wrote on a social media post that he did not care if Kennedy participated in debates but added that the candidate “needs more than his name” to get onto the debate stage.
The Biden campaign directed NewsNation to the Democratic National Committee, which declined to comment.
