2024 Election /

RFK Jr. to Livestream Answers During Trump-Biden Debate

‘I’m going to be on that debate stage with or without their permission’

Published: June 27, 2024
  |   By Chris Karr
RFK Jr. to Livestream Answers During Trump-Biden Debate

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will livestream answers to questions posed to Donald Trump and President Joe Biden during CNN’s Thursday night debate.


Last week, the news network announced that Trump and Biden were the only candidates who met its qualifications. At the time, Kennedy did not secure his appearance on enough state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold, nor did he receive at least 15 percent in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters.

"My exclusion by Presidents Biden and Trump from the debate is undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly," Kennedy said in a statement on June 20. "Americans want an independent leader who will break apart the two-party duopoly. They want a President who will heal the divide, restore the middle class, unwind the war machine, and end the chronic disease epidemic.”

In response to his exclusion, the independent candidate wants to drive viewers to a website named The Real Debate where Kennedy will answer questions from the CNN debate in a live broadcast powered by X.

“Over 70 percent of Americans want a different choice than presidents Biden and Trump,” he said in a video statement released earlier this week. “They’re tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.”

Kennedy alleged Trump and Biden colluded with CNN to prevent his participation.

“But I’m not going to let them silence us,” he continued. “I’m going to be on that debate stage with our without their permission.”


Kennedy’s announcement received encouragement from comedian Theo Von and former presidential candidate Ron Paul, who wrote, “I know what it’s like to be excluded in the electoral process and I am glad to see [Kennedy] is fighting back!”

“I find the circumstances surrounding this first debate to be horrifying,” wrote musician Seán Ono Lennon. “It’s amazing to be both Big Brother and incompetent at the same time. I’ll be watching rfk’s thing.”

Kennedy released another ad promoting his parallel participation in the debate Thursday afternoon. The video features the candidate walking in slow motion in Washington, D.C. as an audio mashup of broadcasters, including Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan and Russell Brand, comment on Kennedy's formidability.


Independent broadcaster Krystal Ball claims it would have been “impossible” for Kennedy to have met CNN’s requirements.

“They guaranteed that he and no one else would qualify,” she said during a recent episode of Krystal Kyle & Friends, which she hosts with her husband, Kyle Kulinski. “They rigged it under a pretense of neutrality to try to make it, ‘Oh, we just have this, you know, this is our criteria and it just applies to everyone, and it’s meant to be fair and impartial, et cetera.’”

“There won’t really be a choice on the stage,” Ball added. “So, just to allow another side of the argument, it’s so important for a democratic process – especially, again, when these Democrats are so full of s--- with their whole, ‘Preserving democracy, that’s our number one thing, that’s what we’re fighting for, et cetera.’ You have no interest in democracy.”


Last month, Kennedy referred to “rigged polling methodologies” from pollsters “who pretend that I’m in single digits.”

Kennedy said these concerns led him to use Zogby Analytics, a research partner that offers what the candidate referred to as “the largest and most accurate poll of this election cycle."

In Zogby’s head-to-head matchups between Kennedy, Trump and Biden, the president loses to both candidates.

“I crush him as well, by even more,” Kennedy added. “And against each other, I beat you in a nail-biter,” he told Trump.

“In a three-way, you are ahead but I’m coming up strong,” he continued. “Two new polls (CNN and Quinnipiac) have me above the 15% debate threshold. Another (Activote) has me at 26% among young voters. And you and I are tied among America’s 70 million Independents.”

Daily Mail reported on a proposal that Kennedy, who has been accused of running as a "spoiler" candidate, revealed during an interview with Dr. Phil scheduled for release on Thursday evening.

"Let's do a spoiler agreement," he said. "We will co-fund a poll together, the two of us in October, and whomever is least likely to beat Donald Trump will withdraw."

Though he acknowledged that Biden will not accept that deal, he denied being a "spoiler."

"A spoiler is somebody who cannot win and they stay in and disrupt the expectations of somebody who can," he said.

A June poll indicated that Kennedy is pulling more voters from Trump than Biden in key battleground states.

Kennedy has previously challenged Trump and Biden to a debate on X that Elon Musk agreed to moderate. In a May 22 post on the platform, the presidential hopeful referred to X as the “new public square with 100x the audience of CNN.”

Despite multiple requests, Trump has shown no interest in debating Kennedy.

"Look, RFK is polling very low. He's not a serious candidate," the former president said in May. "But he has very low numbers, certainly not numbers he can debate with. He's gotta get his numbers up a lot higher before he's credible."

According to a June 25 press release, Kennedy has secured ballot access in Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Minnesota, and South Carolina. He has submitted the required amount of signatures in nearly a dozen other states and collected enough to qualify in half a dozen states.

Overall, the press release states, Kennedy and running mate Nicole Shanahan have enough signatures to appear on the ballot in 25 states, “totaling 348 electoral votes, 65% of the 538 total electoral votes nationwide.”

Kennedy still may qualify for ABC News' Sept. 10 debate, which has the same ballot access and polling criteria, though may have a wider window of qualification.

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