AP: More Than Half of Democrat Field In ‘Danger’ Of Getting Dropped From Debates
Patrick Howley
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The Associated Press reports Monday that more than half of the Democrat candidates in the 2020 presidential race are in “real danger” of not making the cut for upcoming debates.
AP reports: “Of the 20 candidates who qualified for the first round of debates in June and July, just six are sure to appear in the September-October round, when the Democratic National Committee requires participants to hit 2% in multiple polls and 130,000 individual donors. Though many campaigns are worried, DNC Chairman Tom Perez has resisted pressure to relax the requirements.”
In a crowded primary, getting dropped from the debates means certain existential destruction.
Kirsten Gillibrand, whose father worked for the NXIVM child trafficking cult while her stepmother/first cousin was an active member, is facing elimination, as is Julian Castro and Amy Klobuchar.
Cory Booker is not happy, with AP reporting: “Booker noted in a weekend fundraising message that he’s more than 30,000 donors away from the threshold. His campaign insists he will hit polling and fundraising marks, but his allies are concerned by what they see as an inherent bias among online donors who traditionally skew white…Steve Phillips, an African American donor, activist and civil rights lawyer, said the fundraising requirements are unfair to black voters.”
The oncoming “cut” might explain why Eric Swalwell — best known for threatening to nuclear bomb the American people on Twitter — kissed up to Biden in the debate, praising him for talking about carrying a “torch” when Swalwell was only a kid and Biden was already a political candidate. Swalwell did not mention that Biden stole the “torch” bit from John F. Kennedy.
So far, the Democrat debates have revealed deep disdain for Joe Biden and media support for Kamala Harris.
With Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke foundering, the only two candidates who are gaining real grassroots or digitally insurgent support are Mayor Pete Buttigieg and tech businessman Andrew Yang, who claimed in the debate that he is not running on a right or left agenda — which might explain why he got the least speaking time of anyone on the second night stage. NBC also got into a public fight with Yang when he accused the network of cutting his microphone at opportune moments.
Buttigieg is being handled by savvy outsider strategist Lis Smith, who worked for Martin O’Malley during the rigged 2016 Democratic primary, while Yang is a hotshot on the web with his “Yang Gang,” which carried him to victory in the Drudge poll after the debate.
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