Misinformation Watch: Did Trump and Biden Collude with CNN to Exclude RFK Jr. From the Debate Stage?

In a recent Instagram post, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden “colluded with CNN to rig the debate rules and block my participation so they don’t have to answer tough questions about the lockdowns, the $34 trillion national debt, the chronic disease epidemic, or the toxic polarization that drives their campaigns.” 

The post came one day after Kennedy failed to qualify for CNN’s (Lean Left bias) first presidential debate, although his campaign formally filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) one month ago accusing CNN of colluding with the other candidates to exclude him.

How RFK Jr. Failed to Qualify

Debate qualifications set by the news network in May stated candidates must appear on enough state ballots to be able to earn 270 electoral votes and receive a minimum of 15% support in four national polls by June 20 – one week before the debate.

Come the deadline, Kennedy earned over 15% support in three reputable polls but polled 13-14% in four more. CNN claimed Kennedy was eligible to appear on six state ballots, totaling only 89 electoral votes; Other outlets reported him to be on seven to nine ballots, still amounting to far less than 270 votes.

While the Kennedy campaign announced it had collected the necessary amount of signatures to appear on 21 ballots and earn 292 electoral votes, many of these states had not yet verified these signatures. 

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office told NBC News (Lean Left bias) they received a nominating petition from the Kennedy campaign on June 7, but added they had until June 24 to verify the signatures under state law.

Minnesota did not confirm Kennedy’s eligibility by the June 20th deadline. 

NBC News called CNN’s qualifications a “Herculean task for a nonmajor-party candidate at this early point in the election calendar.” While CNN used criteria similar to the Commission on Presidential Debates (which has handled every presidential debate since the late 1980s), media outlet 538, of ABC News (Center Bias), noted the CPD’s debates “always come after Labor Day, by which time ballot certification has concluded in all or nearly all state.”

While CNN stated on May 16 it was not “an impossibility” for Kennedy to meet its requirements, a Trump campaign official told the Washington Post (Lean Left bias) that, on the very day Biden and Trump accepted CNN’s invitation to debate (May 15), a network producer assured them “‘RFK will not be on the stage.’”

Why the New Debate Dates?

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced last year the debates for the 2024 election would occur on September 16, October 1, and October 9.

In a letter leaked by the Biden campaign to the Washington Post and New York Times (Lean Left bias), campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon notifies the CPD, “the President will not be participating in the Commission on Presidential Debates’ announced debates in 2024,” before inviting Trump to participate in two debates held by news organizations – one in June and another in early September. 

Among Dillon’s concerns was the urgency to host a debate before early voting begins on September 4, a grievance also outlined by the RNC when it withdrew from the CPD in 2022.

CNN notes , “Many of the conditions laid out in the Biden campaign’s proposal were criteria the Trump campaign also wanted – namely, to move up the schedule by three months and to avoid sharing a stage with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” 

Dillon added in the Biden campaign’s letter, “The debates should be one-on-one, allowing voters to compare the only two candidates with any statistical chance of prevailing in the Electoral College – and not squandering debate time on candidates with no prospect of becoming President.”

Kennedy’s Collusion Argument 

The Kennedy campaign released an official statement calling Kennedy’s exclusion from the debate stage “undemocratic, unAmerican, and cowardly.” 

It argues CNN is excluding Kennedy from the debate because he is not on enough ballots to reach 270 electoral votes but is not holding Trump or Biden – who will each not appear on state ballots until they are formally nominated by their respective parties – to those same requirements “by claiming they are each ‘the presumptive nominee’ of a political party.” 

According to Kennedy’s legal team, this is in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which prohibits corporations from making contributions to any federal candidate. In order for a debate to not be considered a campaign contribution, the host organization must not use the debates to “advance one candidate over the other” and must use “‘pre-established’ objective criteria to determine which candidates may participate in the debate.” 

The Kennedy team asserts that a candidate setting the criteria for the debate, as the Biden campaign arguably did in this letter to the CPD, negates the “pre-established” nature of CNN’s qualifications. 

Bottom Line 

Outlets on the political right and left have reported on both Trump and Biden’s desire to keep Kennedy out of the race. There’s no hard evidence that they’ve colluded to do so, but circumstantial evidence includes the language in Biden’s letter to the CPD and a Trump campaign official’s account that CNN told the candidates Kennedy would not appear on stage with them. 

The FEC told Hawaii’s Island News (Not Rated) that the term “presumptive nominee” as employed by CNN “is not in the FEC’s debate regulation.” The complaint will be further evaluated by the commission as they receive responses from CNN, Biden, and Trump.  

As for Kennedy, his campaign will be live-streaming a campaign event on Thursday, June 27 at 9 PM on X and TheRealDebate.com so American voters may “see the presidential debate as it is supposed to be — Biden, Trump, Kennedy — and to decide for themselves which candidate will best serve them over the coming four years.”

Nivriti Agaram is a Content Intern at AllSides. She has a Center bias.

This piece was edited and reviewed by Isaiah Anthony , Deputy Blog Editor (Center bias), Julie Mastrine , Director of Marketing and Media Bias Ratings (Lean Right bias), Joseph Ratliff, Content Designer and News Editor (Lean Left bias), and Henry Brechter , Editor-in-chief (Center bias).