The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday which national polls will be used to determine whether a presidential candidate meets the 15 percent polling threshold to participate in the general election debates.
The five polls the commission will use are ABC/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times, CNN/ORC, Fox News and NBC/Wall Street Journal, according to the commission’s announcement.
An Aug. 9 national poll from ABC/Washington Post, the most recent release of those pollsters, showed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson polling at 8 percent, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein trailing at 4 percent in the four-way presidential poll. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lead the GOP’s Donald Trump in that poll, 45-37.
The commission did not provide a specific date for when a candidate must reach the 15 percent threshold, saying only that the criteria will be applied in mid-September.
To be a part of the debate, candidates also have to meet constitutional eligibility requirements to hold office, and have their name appear on enough state ballots to have a mathematical chance at gaining a majority in the Electoral College, according to the commission’s rules.
The first presidential debate is scheduled for Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, followed by an Oct. 9 debate at Washington University in St. Louis, and the final debate on Oct. 19 at University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
I thought Drumpf would have been automatically invited? Guess not.
I hope Trump can hang on to 15% to avoid banishment to the “kiddie table”.
On pins and needles about this.
Trump will use the criteria as a reason to call the debates unfair (because he doesn’t dare be on the stage alone with Ms Clinton), cite Nixon’s refusal and not debate.
I remember the last time a third-party candidate was in the debates. Don’t you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1w3FgB0OhcYes, it’s Admiral John ‘I Got Hit on the Head’ Stockdale. Newsweek magazine called him 'a kindly old owl that had accidentally flown into a closed patio door." Well, except for the last nine words. Those are mine.
In general, not sure if more people at the debate will help or hurt Trump. I guess it gives him more people to play off. But Johnson hurts Trump more than he hurts HRC and Stein is unlikely to meet the 15% threshold any time soon.