Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fails to qualify for first presidential debate

CNN, which is hosting the first presidential debate, reported on Thursday that only President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had qualified to be on stage. The 90-minute debate is scheduled for 9 p.m. June 27 in Atlanta, Ga., with CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash hosting.

What did the candidate have to say about the decision? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement that CNN illegally agreed to the demands of Biden and Trump, who he said didn’t want him in the debate. Last week, Kennedy’s campaign said it filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that CNN had violated federal election law by crafting the eligibility requirements for the debate. Federal election law requires that organizations hosting debates use pre-established and objective criteria in setting up the qualifications for which candidates are eligible to participate in the debate.

What were the qualifications to appear on the debate stage? CNN explained that candidates hoping to appear on the debate stage had to satisfy the eligibility criteria in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution for the office of president. That meant the candidates had to be at least 35 years old and a natural-born citizen of the United States. The candidates also needed to have filed a formal statement that they were a candidate with the FEC. Furthermore, they need to be on enough states’ ballots to have a chance of winning the 270 electoral college votes necessary to win the presidency, CNN said. They also needed to have won at least 15 percent of voters’ support in polls CNN deemed sufficiently credible.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno’s report in The Stew, which provides a crash course on RFK Jr.’s policy positions.