Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump of working together to keep him out of the 2024 debates.
The independent candidate took to his social media to make the bold claim just minutes after CNN announced a date for the first debate between the two major candidates.
“Presidents Trump and Biden are colluding to lock America into a head-to-head match-up that 70% say they do not want,” Kennedy Jr. wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “They are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win. Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy.”
"Forty-three percent of Americans identify as independents. If Americans are ever going to escape the hammerlock of the two-party system, now is the time to do it," he explained. "These are the two most unpopular candidates in living memory."
He concluded, "By excluding me from the stage, Presidents Biden and Trump seek to avoid discussion of their eight years of mutual failure including deficits, wars, lockdowns, chronic disease, and inflation."
According to CNN, the independent candidate was not explicitly barred from the debate. However, the network clarified that candidates simply need to meet the criteria for the debate. Those qualifications include being on enough state ballots to be able to earn 270 electoral votes as well as hitting 15 percent in at least four national polls.
At this time, only Biden and Trump have qualified.
Kennedy Jr. has qualified for the ballot in a handful of states and recently filed for Texas, where his campaign claims he would have enough signatures to make the cut.
Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler was interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday, May 15, where he was asked if Kennedy Jr. should make the debate stage in September if he’s qualified.
Tyler brushed off the idea, telling Tapper that the “reality” is "only Biden or Trump can win the election."
“The American people deserve to hear from them because that is the reality we are facing,” he said. “That’s the choice in this election, so we should have a debate between the two candidates.”
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As OK! previously reported, Trump showed no sign of accepting to debate Kennedy posting a video tirade to his alternative online platform, Truth Social, calling his opponent "more liberal than anyone running on the Democratic side."
"RFK Jr. is a Democrat plant,” the ex-president and presumed 2024 Republican nominee began, "a radical left liberal who's been put in place in order to help crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the United States, get reelected."