Two Democrats challenging President Joe Biden in the 2024 primary are calling foul over the absence of planned debates.
Declared candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and self-help author Marianne Williamson took aim at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after The Washington Post reported the national Democratic Party said it will support Biden and has no plans to sponsor primary debates.
“The DNC, at this point, has taken the official position that there will be no debate, and I think that’s unfortunate,” Kennedy Jr. told Breitbart News.
He also lamented how the DNC passed changes that would make South Carolina, where Biden began his primary comeback in 2020, the first nominating state on the party’s presidential primary calendar ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire.
“There’s too many Americans who already think that the whole system is rigged against them. And this is confirmation of that. And I think that’s troubling,” Kennedy Jr. said.
Williamson, who previously ran for president in the 2020 election, tweeted her dismay with the DNC on Monday.
“As though there simply ARE no other candidates … no other ideas we should discuss about ways to win in 2024, or other ideas we should discuss about ways to repair the country,” she said. “Too many people are too smart to accept this.”
The DNC “plans no primary debates.”
As though there simply ARE no other candidates … no other ideas we should discuss about ways to win in 2024, or other ideas we should discuss about ways to repair the country.
Too many people are too smart to accept this.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) April 24, 2023
On the Republican side, where former President Donald Trump is seeking re-election among a growing pool of candidates, Fox News has been chosen to host the first primary debate in August.
Biden has said he intends to seek re-election but has yet to make an official announcement. The Washington Post reported last week that aides were finalizing plans to release a video on Tuesday to officially launch Biden’s campaign.
A mere 26% of Americans and 47% of Democrats want Biden to run again, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. The same poll found 78% of Democrats say they approve of Biden’s job performance, and 81% said they would at least probably support Biden if he becomes the nominee in the general election.
Biden’s expected announcement comes as some, including the New York Times editorial board, raise concerns about his age and fitness for office. Already the oldest person to be president at 80, Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term.
