Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard threatened to boycott the next Democratic debate after accusing the Democratic National Committee of “rigging” the primaries.
Gabbard said in a video that she may boycott next week’s debate because the DNC turned the debates into "commercialized reality television."
Gabbard said that Iowa and New Hampshire voters expressed their frustration that "the DNC and the corporate media are essentially trying to usurp" the voters.
"The 2016 Democratic primary election was rigged by the DNC and their partners in the corporate media against Bernie Sanders," she said. "In this 2020 election, the DNC and the corporate media are rigging the election again, but this time it's against the American people in the early voting states," she added, naming Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
"They're attempting to replace the roles of voters in the early states, using polling and other arbitrary methods, which are not transparent or Democratic," she added.
Marianne Williamson agrees:
Gabbard qualified for the next debate and appeared in the June and July debates, though she failed to qualify for the September debate.
Despite her complaints, the DNC has been relatively transparent about the qualification requirements.
“The DNC first released the qualifications for the June and July debates in February; the qualifications for the September and October debates in May; and the qualifications for the November debate in September,” USA Today reported. “To make it to the debate stage in November, candidates must receive individual donations from at least 165,000 people, consisting of at least 600 unique donors in at least 20 states. In terms of polling, candidates must stand at 3% or higher in at least four approved national or early state polls, or they can reach 5% or higher in two early state polls.”
Gabbard is just short of qualifying for the November debate.
The only candidate thus far to back Gabbard was author Marianne Williamson, who has failed to qualify for any debates since July.
"I have great respect for Tulsi for saying such inconvenient truth," Williamson wrote in a tweet. "She is absolutely correct."
Gabbard echoes Bernie's complaints -- without the support:
As Gabbard noted, Bernie Sanders frequently accused the DNC of "rigging" the primaries. Unlike Sanders, however, Gabbard simply doesn't have many supporters after appearing to defend Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and criticizing Democrats who called for President Trump's impeachment.
Gabbard is polling at 0.6% nationally, according to RealClearPolitics' poll average, 2.3% in Iowa, 3.7% in New Hampshire, and1% in Nevada and South Carolina.
