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.
Street takeovers and traffic control by agitators in Minnesota cross legal lines, retired detective says
Suspect arrested after fire burns oldest Mississippi synagogue
US used sonic weapon on Venezuelan troops, report shared by Leavitt claims
Critical clue led police to suspect Chicago doctor in deaths of Ohio dentist, wife
LA Residents Still Battling Toxic Hazards in the Aftermath of Last January’s Devastating Wildfires
DHS deploying hundreds more federal agents to Minneapolis, Noem announces
Chinese Communist Party Rounds Up Members of Underground Christian Church in Crackdown
Repeat Offender Charged with Assaulting, Robbing Pregnant Woman While on Blue City’s ‘Electronic Monitoring’
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from enforcing mail-in voting rules in executive order
Obama Presidential Center slammed for promoting ‘far-left’ agenda on public land
Dallas Police Solve 52-Year-Old Missing Person Case, the Oldest in the State of Texas
Police Department Uses AI to Write Reports, Only to Have it Claim One of the Officers Was Turned Into a Frog
Blackstone Stock Nosedives After Trump Announces Plan to Ban Major Investors from Buying Up Single-Family Homes
Trump responds to post suggesting Rubio as president of Cuba: ‘Sounds good to me’
Somali Maine city councilor resigns days after taking office after felony charge, residency questions
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.
Street takeovers and traffic control by agitators in Minnesota cross legal lines, retired detective says
Suspect arrested after fire burns oldest Mississippi synagogue
US used sonic weapon on Venezuelan troops, report shared by Leavitt claims
Critical clue led police to suspect Chicago doctor in deaths of Ohio dentist, wife
LA Residents Still Battling Toxic Hazards in the Aftermath of Last January’s Devastating Wildfires
DHS deploying hundreds more federal agents to Minneapolis, Noem announces
Chinese Communist Party Rounds Up Members of Underground Christian Church in Crackdown
Repeat Offender Charged with Assaulting, Robbing Pregnant Woman While on Blue City’s ‘Electronic Monitoring’
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from enforcing mail-in voting rules in executive order
Obama Presidential Center slammed for promoting ‘far-left’ agenda on public land
Dallas Police Solve 52-Year-Old Missing Person Case, the Oldest in the State of Texas
Police Department Uses AI to Write Reports, Only to Have it Claim One of the Officers Was Turned Into a Frog
Blackstone Stock Nosedives After Trump Announces Plan to Ban Major Investors from Buying Up Single-Family Homes
Trump responds to post suggesting Rubio as president of Cuba: ‘Sounds good to me’
Somali Maine city councilor resigns days after taking office after felony charge, residency questions
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.
