Asked in an interview with The Times whether she would like to see more debates scheduled, Pelosi responded, “I would”.
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“So we believe that six debates are enough”.
Ben Doernberg, founder of #AllowDebate, said it appears to be only Wasserman Schultz defending the six-debate schedule in the face of increased pressure, but he is confident the movement will be successful. “But I don’t know that we’re going to have more debates”, Pelosi said.
In the 2008 presidential election cycle, Democratic candidates participated in 26 debates, according to allowdebate.com group.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told The Los Angeles Times Friday that she thinks the Democratic Party should host more presidential debates.
Candidates Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders have both said they are frustrated that the DNC’s rules favor front-runner Hillary Clinton. In addition to scheduling just 6 officially-sanctioned debates, the DNC (via DWS) has limited the potential for rogue forums by creating a new rule: if a Democrat chooses to participate in a non-sanctioned debate, they’ll be banned from future sanctioned ones. However, many think it is unlikely the Democratic Party bash will go ahead & add more debates with out direct intervention from the White Home or Clinton’s marketing campaign.
Last week, two DNC vice chairs even reversed course and called for more official debates, yet Wasserman Schultz has held her ground. They also delivered a petition with 23,000 signatures demanding more debates. But Wasserman Schultz has repeatedly said that the number of debates isn’t adjustable.
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While Sanders has said he thinks the DNC is “dead wrong” to limit the number of debates, O’Malley’s campaign has vociferously pushed the issue since it has the most to gain from having more exposure. I am actually thrilled at the voters across America being able to see the 16 Republican candidates in the food-fight that they’ll engage in tonight in the doubling down on extremism, alienating immigrants to the country who simply came to make a better way of life for themselves, alienating women by suggesting that we’re providing too much health care funding for them, and wanting to take away the access to quality affordable healthcare for all Americans.
