“Let Gary debate.” The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Friday that the two third-party nominees, Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, won’t participate in the September 26 debate.
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The commission, citing the averages the various candidates have achieved in selected polls, confirmed that Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton had met the criteria.
The announcement also means that William Weld, the Libertarian vice presidential nominee, will not participate in an October 4 debate involving Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence.
The first presidential debate will feature Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump – and no one else.
On Friday afternoon, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that none of the third-party candidates now running would make the cut for the first presidential debate or first vice presidential debate.
Johnson has no such plans, but he and running mate Bill Weld have previously said that an exclusion from the debate stage would close off their chances at an upset win. The CPD says among other things, a candidate needs at least 15 percent popular vote to debate.
America’s corrupt campaign finance system and the corporate-controlled media prevents third-party candidates from getting proper access to the press and winning the race for the White House, Dankof told Press TV last month.
It is time for the American public to take back its democracy by fighting the Commission on Presidential Debates to allow all four candidates to discuss the real problems facing this country and the rest of the world in front of everyone before the election this November. At the very least, Johnson and Stein should be invited to take the stage for that September 26 debate. He has been averaging around 8% in national polling, but believes the debates could help him reach a much wider audience.
After some speculation that he may not, Trump has signaled his intent to attend all three of the presidential debates hosted by the nonpartisan commission. “Yet, the Republicans and Democrats are choosing to silence the candidate preferred by those millions of Americans”, he said in a statement.
Johnson said today that he was not surprised by the CPD’s announcement. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt will moderate, according to The New York Times.
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Green Party candidate Jill Stein was also excluded.
