Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced that he will meet the debate qualification criteria set by CNN for its June 27 presidential debate, however, he questions the legality of these guidelines. Kennedy filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on May 28, alleging that CNN collaborated with President Joe Biden’s and former President Donald Trump’s campaigns to exclude him from participating in the event.
Earlier this month, both President Biden and President Trump confirmed their participation in the June 27 debate, which is set to be the earliest presidential debate in televised history on CNN. According to multiple reports, President Biden’s campaign suggested excluding third-party candidates from the debates, with assurances from CNN that Mr. Kennedy would not be allowed to participate. However, later President Trump stated his independent opponent should be included if he meets the guidelines.
According to CNN’s debate qualification rules, by the June 20 debate eligibility deadline, a candidate’s name must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold required to win the presidency. To date, the Kennedy campaign has met signature requirements for ballot access in 17 states, representing 229 electoral votes.
The Kennedy-Nicole Shanahan ticket is officially on the ballot in seven states: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. Moreover, the Kennedy campaign has collected enough signatures for ballot access in nine other states: Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio.
Last week, Mr. Kennedy was nominated as the 2024 presidential candidate by the Reform Party in Florida. Candidates must also obtain “at least 15 percent in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that meet CNN’s standards for reporting.” The window to determine eligibility for the June 27 debate opened on March 13 and will close on June 20, according to CNN.
CNN states that its editorial standards are met by surveys conducted by ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, Marquette University Law School, Monmouth University, NBC News, The New York Times/Siena College, NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist College, Quinnipiac University, the Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. These surveys will be considered for debate eligibility.
According to his campaign, Mr. Kennedy has met the requirements for three of these polls. Last week, he gained 17 percent support in a Marquette Law School survey. In April, he received 16 percent backing in CNN and Quinnipiac polls.
Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly stated that he will satisfy CNN’s requirements, but the FEC complaint alleges that the broadcast outlet is “illegally demanding” he meet different participation criteria than President Biden and President Trump and that the debate is “a large prohibited campaign contribution” to the current president and former president.
CNN’s alleged collaboration with “the Biden Committee and the Trump committee” in scheduling a debate with criteria designed to result in the selection of certain pre-chosen candidates, namely Biden and Trump, is considered “a clear breach of federal campaign finance law,” according to Mr. Kennedy’s complaint. The complaint asks the FEC to prevent the June 27 debate from happening “until the parties have come into compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act.
Mr. Kennedy entered the 2024 presidential race in April 2023, when he declared his intent to challenge President Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination. A CNN spokesperson disagreed with Mr. Kennedy’s claims and stated that the current president and former president would satisfy ballot access criteria because they are the presumptive nominees of their parties, while Mr. Kennedy, as an independent candidate, is not guaranteed to appear on the ballot in every state.
