RFK Jr. won’t join Trump, Biden on debate stage

(NewsNation) —  Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has missed the deadline to qualify for the CNN Presidential Debate set for next week.

The June 27 event marks the first debate in U.S. history between a sitting president, Democrat Joe Biden, and a former president — his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump.

To be eligible for the debate, CNN said, candidates had to satisfy constitutional requirements to serve as president and file a formal statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.

In addition, CNN decided in May that all participants had to appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to get the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, and receive at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters meeting the news outlets’ “standards for reporting.”

Only Biden and Trump met these requirements by the Thursday deadline given by CNN. Kennedy had complained that CNN said Biden and Trump met the ballot access requirements because they are their parties’ presumptive nominees.

“The law in virtually every state provides that the nominee of a state-recognized political party will be allowed ballot access without petitioning. As the presumptive nominees of their parties both Biden and Trump will satisfy this requirement,” a CNN spokesperson told NewsNation in a statement. “As an independent candidate, under applicable laws, RFK Jr. currently does not.”

According to NewsNation partner The Hill and Decision Desk HQ, as of Wednesday, Kennedy will officially appear on the presidential ballot in five states, meaning he could potentially get 40 electoral votes. Only three polls approved by CNN had Kennedy at 15%.

“I don’t think anyone’s doing anything to handicap him,” Scott Tranter, an analyst and adviser to Decision Desk HQ, said to The Hill. “I think they’re just trying to do everything by the book.”

Still, Kennedy’s campaign team requested the FEC intervene, with the independent candidate accusing CNN of “colluding with the Biden and Trump campaigns” to stop him from debating next week.

“Presidents Biden and Trump do not want me on the debate stage and CNN illegally agreed to their demand,” Kennedy said on X. “My exclusion by Presidents Biden and Trump is undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly. Americans want an independent leader who will break apart the two-party duopoly.”

Campaign workers for Kennedy claim they’ve collected enough signatures for ballot access in 18 other states, although those signatures still need to be verified.

“The mere application for ballot access does not guarantee that (Kennedy) will appear on the ballot in any state,” the CNN spokesperson said. “In addition, RFK, Jr. does not currently meet our polling criteria, which, like the other objective criteria, were set before issuing invitations to the debate.”

Kennedy’s communications director Del Bigtree told NewsNation the campaign still plans on running ads during the debate.

“We believe that Bobby will be on that stage until proven otherwise. This is the most transparent candidate we’ve every seen,” Bigtree said in a statement Thursday. “We’ll probably be making comments before the debate if he’s not there, and after. This is all the process that America needs to recognize is corrupted. And Robert Kennedy is standing up to this corruption.”

Reporting by NewsNation correspondent Tom Dempsey and Reuters contributed to this report.