The nonprofit Free and Equal Elections Foundation will host its fourth presidential debate of the year, scheduled for sometime in October. The Foundation has invited seven candidates to participate.
A promotional video published on the Foundation’s website on Monday indicates that the debate will be held next month, although the exact date and venue have yet to be announced. This marks a change from previous announcements, which had indicated the debate would take place in mid-September. As with past debates organized by Free and Equal, the event will be streamed on platforms such as Rumble.
The promotional video indicates that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Republican nominee Donald Trump, independent candidate Dr. Cornel West, Libertarian nominee Chase Oliver, Green nominee Dr. Jill Stein, Constitution nominee Randall Terry, and Party for Socialism and Liberation nominee Claudia De la Cruz have all been invited to participate.
The Free and Equal Elections Foundation previously held debates in January, February, and July of this year, with the most recent event taking place at FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Nevada. Three candidates participated in that debate: Chase Oliver, Jill Stein, and Randall Terry.
Specific participation criteria for October’s debate are not yet known, but past debate criteria included being constitutionally eligible to serve as President and either securing ballot access in enough states to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority in the Electoral College or receiving more than two percent in a national poll that meets the Foundation’s standards.
I was actually agreeing with the crickets until we got to Randall Terry, and then immediately started tuning out. I tuned out the rest of the way when Islamophobia raised its ugly head; well, I actually skipped down to the racism and sexism with reverse spin at the bottom.
How did some of the invitees qualify?
We can discount Trump and Harris, who won’t be there.
Oliver and Stein qualify through ballot access.
West has been in some polls. Maybe Terry, although I’m not remembering any off the top of my head.
De La Cruz? Included in what polls?
Yay! I was looking forward to another one of these. Much more entertaining than ABC’s Harris-Trump debate this evening.
Here are some predictions:
– Trump won’t show.
– Harris won’t show.
– West won’t show.
– Jasmine Sherman will complain about not being invited.
– All debaters who are invited and do show, will engage in several rounds of verbally patting themselves and each other on the backs just for being there.
– Christina Tobin will herself be one of the moderators.
– There will be technical difficulties, probably related to the audio.
– There will be some artsy/avant-garde performance prior to the debate, which is intended as a display of patriotism.
– Stein and de la Cruz will plagiarize each others answers then launch passive aggressive ad hominems to distinguish themselves.
– Terry will go in, leg stretched, and wipe the floor with not only all the other debaters, but also with each of the moderators.
– Terry will nonetheless be awarded last place on the basis of the audience voting app.
– Stein will praise muslim terrorists, possibly “Palestinian”, possibly Iranian, possibly both.
– Stein will be awarded third place by the audience voting app.
– Oliver will be the only one who never gets told off for going over time.
– Oliver will be awarded second place by the audience voting app.
– De la Cruz will weaponize “privilege” in an attempt deflect/justify saying something racist/sexist.
– De la Cruz will therefore be declared audience winner on the basis of the voting app.
Feel free to turn them into a drinking game, or a bingo card, or whatever.