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.
Mystery stranger vanishes after family says frantic warning saved their lives during devastating house fire
WNBA Headache Gets Bigger: More Sophie Cunningham Rallies Scheduled
Nancy Guthrie update: DNA couldn’t be profiled from crime scene hair sample, sheriff says
GOP gubernatorial candidate fighting to flip blue state unveils healthcare plan to lower costs, expand access
WATCH: GOP holdout rejects Trump threat as AG nominee standoff explodes
Total Fraud: Adam Schiff Demands AI Political Parodies Be Banned, Forgets He Lied About Trump and Called It Parody in 2019
Hamas agrees to complete disarmament under ‘historic’ Gaza agreement: Trump
Schiff-backed candidate abruptly ends gubernatorial campaign amid rumblings of a damaging report
Watch: Chuck Schumer Gets in Shouting Match with Heckler During News Conference
Trump Announces Plan to Replace Illegal Alien Truckers with American Veterans
Trump promotes Freedom Haulers Initiative to fast-track military veterans into trucking jobs
Virginia university report finds officials did not disclose student’s terror conviction
Watch: Eagles Defensive Coordinator Repeatedly Mocks Fauci During News Conference
House panel demands classified briefings on noncitizen voting, alleged Chinese election interference
Georgia mother fights off alleged child snatcher with gas pump in surveillance video
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.
Mystery stranger vanishes after family says frantic warning saved their lives during devastating house fire
WNBA Headache Gets Bigger: More Sophie Cunningham Rallies Scheduled
Nancy Guthrie update: DNA couldn’t be profiled from crime scene hair sample, sheriff says
GOP gubernatorial candidate fighting to flip blue state unveils healthcare plan to lower costs, expand access
WATCH: GOP holdout rejects Trump threat as AG nominee standoff explodes
Total Fraud: Adam Schiff Demands AI Political Parodies Be Banned, Forgets He Lied About Trump and Called It Parody in 2019
Hamas agrees to complete disarmament under ‘historic’ Gaza agreement: Trump
Schiff-backed candidate abruptly ends gubernatorial campaign amid rumblings of a damaging report
Watch: Chuck Schumer Gets in Shouting Match with Heckler During News Conference
Trump Announces Plan to Replace Illegal Alien Truckers with American Veterans
Trump promotes Freedom Haulers Initiative to fast-track military veterans into trucking jobs
Virginia university report finds officials did not disclose student’s terror conviction
Watch: Eagles Defensive Coordinator Repeatedly Mocks Fauci During News Conference
House panel demands classified briefings on noncitizen voting, alleged Chinese election interference
Georgia mother fights off alleged child snatcher with gas pump in surveillance video
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.
