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.
Sen Kennedy says no living politicians should have buildings named after them after Trump’s moves
Attorney for lone holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy mistrial pushes back on claims of refusing the law
Police hunt sexually violent predator who vanished after GPS ‘tamper mode’ alert
Susie Wiles reveals brutal toll of fighting cancer while running Trump’s White House
Woman found dead with unexplained trauma in Central Park as NYPD searches for answers
John Fetterman accidentally calls himself a ‘lifelong Republican’ at Texas Tribune Festival
University Scrubbed Pentagon-Funded Professor’s Ties to CCP: Report
SCOTUS Climate Suit Could Devastate Family Farms, Give China and Russia an Edge: Expert
Ozempic Maker Teams Up with Big AI for New Drug Development
Breaking: ‘They Were Looking to Do Big Damage’ – Trump Speaks Out on Terror Plot as Photo of Suspects Goes Viral
Texas voters have plenty to say about whether Lone Star State could turn blue
‘Palestinian Rachel Dolezal’: Woke Activist Exposed for Faking Black-Arab Racial Identity – She’s White
Texas clinic owner convicted in $26M military health fraud tied to gold-plated Cybertruck
Trump DOJ Sues California City for Jacking Up Gun Permits, Pricing Citizens Out of Their 2A Rights
Watch: El-Sayed Refuses to Condemn IRGC Even After They Brutally Murdered Tens of Thousands
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.
Sen Kennedy says no living politicians should have buildings named after them after Trump’s moves
Attorney for lone holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy mistrial pushes back on claims of refusing the law
Police hunt sexually violent predator who vanished after GPS ‘tamper mode’ alert
Susie Wiles reveals brutal toll of fighting cancer while running Trump’s White House
Woman found dead with unexplained trauma in Central Park as NYPD searches for answers
John Fetterman accidentally calls himself a ‘lifelong Republican’ at Texas Tribune Festival
University Scrubbed Pentagon-Funded Professor’s Ties to CCP: Report
SCOTUS Climate Suit Could Devastate Family Farms, Give China and Russia an Edge: Expert
Ozempic Maker Teams Up with Big AI for New Drug Development
Breaking: ‘They Were Looking to Do Big Damage’ – Trump Speaks Out on Terror Plot as Photo of Suspects Goes Viral
Texas voters have plenty to say about whether Lone Star State could turn blue
‘Palestinian Rachel Dolezal’: Woke Activist Exposed for Faking Black-Arab Racial Identity – She’s White
Texas clinic owner convicted in $26M military health fraud tied to gold-plated Cybertruck
Trump DOJ Sues California City for Jacking Up Gun Permits, Pricing Citizens Out of Their 2A Rights
Watch: El-Sayed Refuses to Condemn IRGC Even After They Brutally Murdered Tens of Thousands
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.
