by Sharon Rondeau
(May 19, 2024) — In a preview to her upcoming broadcast, Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo announced on “Fox & Friends” she will be interviewing 2024 Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who accuses both Republican presumptive nominee Donald J. Trump and current White House occupant Joe Biden of “colluding” to preclude him from participating in two agreed-to debates June 27 and September 10.
For months Trump had challenged Biden to debate him “anytime, anywhere, anyplace” with only vague or no response from the White House. However, on Wednesday morning Biden released a 13-second campaign video and tweet accepting Trump’s challenge but restricting moderators to those of his choosing, excluding third-party presidential candidates and a live audience and dictating such items as when microphones would be turned on and off.
According to CBS News, Biden “accepted an invitation from CNN on June 27th,” then invited Trump to participate.
Although accepting the offer and apparently agreeing to Biden’s terms, Trump nevertheless said he does not object to Kennedy’s participation if he qualifies.
According to Bartiromo at 10:03 a.m. EDT, the Biden campaign “bypassed” the Commission on Presidential Debates so as to set his own ground rules.
On Saturday evening at an address to the NRA in Dallas and Friday at a GOP event in Minnesota, Trump suggested he would demand a “drug test” of Biden prior to debating, stating Biden was “high as as kite” during the State of the Union address he gave in early March.
On Thursday morning, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC3), a medical doctor, told Bartiromo, to her obvious surprise, that he could show her “offline” evidence he possesses that Biden was “jacked up,” meaning given a “pharmacological” substance to enhance his performance at the SOTU address.
On Friday, Trump accepted an invitation from Fox News, confirmed by Bret Baier, to host a vice-presidential debate on a “date to be determined.”
Although amid much speculation, Trump has not yet announced his vice-presidential choice.
At 10:06, Kennedy was brought on and began by saying he “will be the only one on the ballot” since he is not a “presumptive nominee” for a party as Trump and Biden are prior to their respective nomination conventions.
By June 20, Kennedy said, he is confident he will have enough “electoral votes” to qualify for the debate stage. According to NBC News:
The question is whether both Kennedy’s ballot-access machine and the state government offices that will process his petition signatures are capable of moving quickly enough to get him on enough state ballots by mid-June to meet the debate criteria — and what exactly the cable network’s criteria, which have been used for autumn presidential debates for decades, mean in a different context at the beginning of summer.
Kennedy’s campaign has long aimed to get on the ballot in all 50 states before Election Day, but the debate accelerated its timeline because one of the criteria for participation is being “on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency prior to the eligibility deadline” a week before the debate.
“We’re in discussion with CNN now,” Kennedy said.
He accused Trump and Biden of having “fed these ‘forever’ wars” and further dividing the electorate amid promises to unite the country.
On “immigration,” Kennedy said, he would “shut down the border overnight”; as to deporting those who arrived illegally under Biden, he did not commit to a broad removal. Focusing on those who have “been in the country a long time and pay taxes,” Kennedy said, “We need to look at that.”
As for the subject of abortion, Kennedy said up through the time of “viability,” a woman should have “complete autonomy” over her body and the government should play no role. After that, he said, “the government has an interest in protecting that child.”
Bartiromo asked Kennedy about Biden’s refusal to grant Kennedy Secret Service protection on which he amplified by stating he has been assessed as being at an “elevated” level of need. In 1968, his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, while running for president, was assassinated in Los Angeles, and in November 1963, his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, TX.
At 10:16, Bartiromo asked Kennedy what he planned to do on “climate change.” “I think climate change is existential,” he replied, and said Biden’s approach of “very, very heavy top-down controls” “is a bad approach.”
We ought to be talking about habitat protection and “protecting our children from water pollution and air pollution,” he said.