Tulsi Gabbard Threatens To Boycott Next Democratic Debate, Accuses Party of 'Rigging' Primary
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is considering boycotting the upcoming Democratic presidential debate in Westerville, Ohio, on Oct. 15.
“I am seriously considering boycotting the next debate on Oct. 15th,” the Hawaii Democrat said in a video she posted on Thursday.
Although Gabbard did not qualify for the third debate in September, she did meet the Democratic National Committee’s qualifying standards for the October debate hosted by CNN, according to Deadline.
Still, the 2020 Democratic candidate is considering skipping next week’s event, accusing the DNC and the mainstream media of “rigging the election.”
“The 2016 Democratic primary election was rigged by the DNC and their partners in the corporate media against Bernie Sanders,” Gabbard said.
“In this 2020 election, the DNC and the corporate media are rigging the election again, but this time it’s against the American people in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.”
“The DNC and the corporate media are trying to hijack the entire election process,” Gabbard added.
After not qualifying for the September debate, if Gabbard skips the next debate, she will miss out on another opportunity to reach millions of voters across the country.
Marianne Williamson, another Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted that she has “great respect for Tulsi for saying such inconvenient truth.”
As of Oct. 1, Williamson had not qualified for the October debate, according to FiveThirtyEight.
In order to qualify for the upcoming October debate, Democratic presidential hopefuls must have at least a 2 percent support in four polls and obtain 165,000 unique donations, according to The Hill.
The qualifications for the November debate are even tougher — 3 percent support in four polls and 165,000 unique donations — and Gabbard has yet to qualify for the next round.
The representative, however, said that the debates “are not debates at all, but rather commercialized reality television meant to entertain, rather than to inform or enlighten.”
“They are attempting to replace the roles of voters in the early states, using polling and other arbitrary methods which are not transparent or democratic,” she said.
According to ABC News, Gabbard has previously criticized the debate criteria, saying that some of the DNC “certified” polls are not as reputable as others.
The Western Journal has reached out to the DNC for comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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