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WATCH: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Shreds ‘Lack Of Transparency’ From DNC That Shut Her Out Of The Next Debate

   DailyWire.com
Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) delivers a 20-minute campaign speech at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox during the Iowa State Fair August 09, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On Wednesday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) appeared on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to discuss not having made the cut for the next debate, which is scheduled for September 12.

CARLSON: Tell me if I’m misstating this. The Democratic Party is refusing to – the DNC is refusing to recognize as valid polls that puts you, that would qualify you for the next debate.

GABBARD: Oh, here’s the situation. There’s a whole bunch of different polls that have come out. The DNC has only recognized some of them as being qualifying polls for the debate. The whole thing gets a little bit confusing, and you’ve got to jump way down into the weeds of the numbers and the statistics. But I think the bigger problem is that the whole process really lacks transparency.

CARLSON: Right.

GABBARD: People deserve having that transparency, because ultimately, it’s the people who will decide who our Democratic nominee will be and ultimately who our next president, commander-in-chief will be. And when you see that lack of transparency, it creates, you know, a lack of faith and trust in the process.

And I think this also points to a bigger issue and challenge that goes beyond the DNC and party politics – [which] is the government itself, you know.

CARLSON: Right.

GABBARD: There [are] people who are increasingly losing that faith and trust in the government because they see a lack of transparency there; they see that we don’t have a government that is of, by, and for the people. And, really, what they see is a small group of really powerful political elites, the establishment, making decisions that serve their interests, and maintaining that power, while the rest of us are left outside. The American people are left behind.

So, these are the deeper-seated issues that I think it’s important that we recognize, and that for me as president, that I would seek to change. That we’d actually fulfill that vision that our Founders had for our country of having a government that is truly of, by, and for the people, and making it so that people can trust that our leaders are listening to them and making decisions not based on partisanship, but based on serving their interests.

GABBARD: Again, I’ve got some concerns about the process. And I think a lot of them go to that lack of transparency. … Because when you have transparency, then people are able to say, “Okay, well, here’s the process. Here’s what’s going on.” That’s not really what we’re seeing right now, especially around all these polls, and the qualifiers and the non-qualifiers for the debate.

For me, I can just say that whether I’m on that debate stage or not, I’m going to continue focusing on speaking directly to voters across this country, connecting with them and recognizing that no matter what the powers that be in Washington say, the power lies in the hands of the people of this country.

According to the rule set issued by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in May, in order to qualify for the September debate, a candidate must have “received donations from a minimum of 130,000 unique donors … and 400 unique donors per state in at least 20 U.S. states.”

Additionally, a candidate must “receive 2% or more support in at least four [qualifying] polls” between the dates of June 28 – August 28. The polling organizations approved by the DNC are:

[The] Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Des Moines Register, Fox News, Monmouth University, NBC News, New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), Quinnipiac University, University of New Hampshire, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, and Winthrop University.

As of the DNC deadline, Rep. Gabbard passed the donations threshold, but fell two polls shy of qualification.

FiveThirtyEight’s Geoffrey Skelley noted on Friday that if the DNC opened up its criteria to allow all polling firms with a B- grade or higher to count toward winning a spot on the debate stage in September, Gabbard would have landed with five qualifying polls.

According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Rep. Gabbard sits in ninth place with 1.4% support, ahead of both Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, both of whom not only have lower average polling numbers than Gabbard (0.9% and 1.1%, respectively), but will be on the debate stage on September 12.

As indicated by Rep. Gabbard during her interview with Carlson, this isn’t the end. While her absence in the September debate could damage her standing in the race, the representative can still make the stage for the next Democratic debate in October.

According to the DNC, candidates will have until October 1 to hit the required benchmarks in order to participate in the debate on October 15.

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