The qualifying criteria for the next Democratic debate are out, and they manage to exclude the only veteran and only woman of color left in the race: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D–Hawaii).
This afternoon, Politico reported that the candidates still in the running for the Democratic presidential nomination will need to have earned at least 20 percent of the delegates awarded thus far in order to participate in the March 15 debate hosted by CNN and Univision in Phoenix, Arizona.
That means that only former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), who respectively have 48 percent and 41 percent of the delegates so far, will be on next Sunday’s stage.
Despite her strong showing in the American Samoa caucuses where she won two delegates, Gabbard still falls short of that very high threshold.
Had the Democratic National Committee stuck with its criteria for the last debate it held on February 25—which only required each candidate to have won a single delegate—Gabbard would have qualified.
Lib Mayor Defends ‘Violence Intervention’ Activists After Yet Another Gets Arrested
Major Car Maker Issues Recall Over Engine Issue That Could Make Vehicle Stall
EXCLUSIVE: Collins pits record built in Maine potato fields against Platner’s ‘angry rhetoric’
Why This Tech Company Wants to Release 32 Million Mosquitos Into the US
Kennedy Center takes down Trump’s name: Photos
Trump Develops Plan to Get His First Term Impeachments Expunged: ‘I Did Nothing Wrong’
Kennedy Center workers start to remove Trump’s name after overnight deadline
Talarico touts Texas roots as out-of-state cash powers Senate campaign
‘Hell on wheels’ killer Mackenzie Shirilla lands prison job while serving life sentence for fatal 2022 crash
Hasan Piker celebrates America being ‘closer than ever’ to socialism as he backs NYC candidates
James Talarico Calls Biden’s Border ‘Utter Chaos’ In Attempted Immigration Rebrand
Menendez brothers eyed $20M insurance payout after parents’ murders, Jose’s ex-business partner claims
Who is Bill Essayli, the hard-charging prosecutor at the center of California’s election fight?
Rahm Emanuel road-tests emphasis on policy over Trump-hatred
Platner’s ‘deranged’ response to Musk becoming a trillionaire sparks online outrage: ‘Loserthink’
DNC Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa foreshadowed this decision on Super Tuesday, saying on Twitter that “by the time we have the March debate, almost 2,000 delegates will be allocated. The threshold will reflect where we are in the race, as it always has.”
We have two more debates– of course the threshold will go up. By the time we have the March debate, almost 2,000 delegates will be allocated. The threshold will reflect where we are in the race, as it always has.
— Xochitl Hinojosa (@XochitlHinojosa) March 4, 2020
In response to the expected rule change, Gabbard tweeted Thursday about her campaign’s foreign policy focus, and how that can’t be separated from the domestic issues that have gotten the most attention in past debates.
Lib Mayor Defends ‘Violence Intervention’ Activists After Yet Another Gets Arrested
Major Car Maker Issues Recall Over Engine Issue That Could Make Vehicle Stall
EXCLUSIVE: Collins pits record built in Maine potato fields against Platner’s ‘angry rhetoric’
Why This Tech Company Wants to Release 32 Million Mosquitos Into the US
Kennedy Center takes down Trump’s name: Photos
Trump Develops Plan to Get His First Term Impeachments Expunged: ‘I Did Nothing Wrong’
Kennedy Center workers start to remove Trump’s name after overnight deadline
Talarico touts Texas roots as out-of-state cash powers Senate campaign
‘Hell on wheels’ killer Mackenzie Shirilla lands prison job while serving life sentence for fatal 2022 crash
Hasan Piker celebrates America being ‘closer than ever’ to socialism as he backs NYC candidates
James Talarico Calls Biden’s Border ‘Utter Chaos’ In Attempted Immigration Rebrand
Menendez brothers eyed $20M insurance payout after parents’ murders, Jose’s ex-business partner claims
Who is Bill Essayli, the hard-charging prosecutor at the center of California’s election fight?
Rahm Emanuel road-tests emphasis on policy over Trump-hatred
Platner’s ‘deranged’ response to Musk becoming a trillionaire sparks online outrage: ‘Loserthink’
I welcome the opportunity to raise & discuss the foreign policy challenges we face, like the new cold war/nuclear arms race, Turkey's efforts to drag the U.S. into a war with Russia over Syria, the coronavirus, & more. Domestic policy cannot be separated from foreign policy. https://t.co/jgVxSz1huX
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) March 5, 2020
Biden and Sanders have sparred in the past over the former’s initial support for the Iraq War, so there is some chance that the two candidates’ contrasting foreign policy visions will be on display come the next debate.
Still, it might have been interesting to have Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, up on stage to offer her own unique perspective on foreign policy. She’s repeatedly argued that rising tensions between the U.S., Russia, and China is putting the country on the road to nuclear war.
A Bernie-Biden smackdown will likely feature less talk of a nuclear apocalypse and a lot more bickering about health care. That’s enough to get anyone running for their fall out shelter.
Story cited here.
