Donald Trump, ahead of his debate with President Joe Biden on CNN later this month, claimed Friday that he would “love” it if Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. were included as well, while acknowledging that the network’s polling criteria—which Kennedy hasn’t met—is necessary.
On Fox News, where the former president and convicted felon was asked about the matchup by his pal, Sean Hannity, Trump began by saying he believed he surprised the Biden campaign by accepting an offer to debate, which came with several conditions.
“They came to me with an offer that I couldn’t accept, and I immediately accepted it,” Trump said, explaining that he did so “because they thought I was not going to accept.”
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The Biden campaign stipulated that the debate would be held by a network that hasn’t shown an ideological bent toward Trump, and would be moderated by a nonpartisan anchor. Also, there would be no crowd, candidates’ microphones would only be on when it’s their turn to speak, and there would be no third-party candidates.
After taking issue with several of these criteria, Trump explained why—unlike during the GOP primary—his participation in the upcoming debate is “vital.”
“And I’d love to have Kennedy in the debate, too,” he then said. “I think it’s important to have him. The problem is, his poll numbers are terrible.”
“So there should be a threshold for him?” Hannity asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Trump replied. “It should be, probably I think they have it at like 20 or 25 percent or something. But his numbers are lousy and they seem to be getting worse. But I don’t mind having him in the debate. I think it would be good.”
CNN’s threshold is 15 percent support in four national polls that meet the network’s standards. Kennedy has attained that mark in three such polls thus far. Additional requirements that he has not met are qualifying for enough state ballots to obtain 270 electoral votes.
Kennedy has accused the Biden and Trump campaigns of “colluding” to exclude him from the national debate stage.
