Posted on 01/11/2016 6:43:51 PM PST by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
Republican presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina will not be joining their rivals on the main stage Thursday evening for the first GOP primary debate of 2016.
Paul, who has been polling around 3 percent nationally, confirmed to CNN's Wolf Blitzer minutes before Fox Business Network announced the lineup Monday that he failed to qualify for the sixth GOP debate in North Charleston, S.C.
Fiorina, who's at 2 percent support in RealClearPolitics' national polling average, has also been axed from the prime-time event. The former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard participated in the first undercard debate of the election cycle, but made it onto the main stage for the four other primetime debates in 2015.
"I will protest," Paul told Blitzer.
"It's a mistake," he added. "We have been in the top five or six in most of the recent polls ... it's a mistake to try and exclude me from the national debate."
The Kentucky senator has since said he will not participate in the undercard debate intended for low-polling candidates, telling the Washington Post that if the networks "want war," he'll give it to them.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declined to respond to Paul's reaction during an appearance Monday on Fox News. Instead, Priebus noted that other candidates have made it back onto the main stage after being relegated to the happy hour debate "and vice versa."
"Certainly [Paul] is a varsity candidate and has done very well," he said.
The seven candidates who qualified for the main event Thursday, which is set to air at 9 p.m. ET, are: businessman Donald Trump, Texas Sen.Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Will be a more enjoyable discussion, without interruptions by the screeching harpy.
What's a junior Senator from Kentucky to do?
It will be much more enjoyable without Hatchet-Face interrupting and complaining no one is calling on her.
If Jebbie had Rand’s numbers, an accommodation would be made. They are probably treating Rand unfairly or at least not as they would a real Bush.
Hard to believe that Kasich is outpolling Paul
The threshold is always just below Bush. Paul is 2.8 and Bush around 3.8. Both are under 4 % nationally. The margin of error means that all candidates are basically tied under 4%.
The cutoff should 8 - 10%. Not where ever Bush is at.
Funny thing about that.
Almost like somebody has their thumb on the butcher scale.
All those candidates that don’t have more than 10% need to drop out...now. This includes you Yeb!
Jeb should be out.
Kasuck will try to take up the slack.
True that! Kasich is that absolute worst for me, with his know-it-all lecturing and gesticulating.
“All those candidates that don’t have more than 10% need to drop out...now. This includes you Yeb!”
No, not yet. Sadly, we need Kasich, Bush, Christie to stay in and divide up the RINO/GOPe votes.
Ohioans know something that we don’t. But I think Harding was better than Kasich.
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