The decision means Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump will be the only two candidates on the stage on September 26, and Tim Kaine and Mike Pence, their respective running mates, will be the only participants on October 4.
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“After all”, he said, “the Commission is a private organization created 30 years ago by the Republican and Democratic parties for the clear objective of taking control of the only nationally-televised presidential debates voters will see”.
“The Board determined that the polling averages … are as follows: Hillary Clinton (43 percent), Donald Trump (40.4 percent), Gary Johnson (8.4 percent) and Jill Stein (3.2 percent)”.
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.
Two thirds of voters in a recent poll also said they wanted Johnson to debate alongside the two major-party candidates. When Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are in the mix, however, Clinton’s lead shrinks to just two points.
“And today we also know that the only other option on every American voter’s ballot will be myself and Gov. [Bill] Weld”, he said. “A national poll is therefore essentially worthless when it comes to predicting the victor in November”, a Tuesday editorial in the Times stated.
Participants in the second and third presidential debates must meet the same set of criteria.
The chance of Johnson and Stein debating this fall have not been completely eliminated, however.
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The CPD has yet to officially announce which presidential candidates will participate in the first debate. But his numbers are not good enough to get him on the debate stage at Hofstra University in NY in 10 days’ time. This time, the CPD, which has been in charge of orchestrating the Presidential debates since the late 1980s, said in a statement that it would abide, instead, by its traditional rules.
