Several independent and third party candidates responded to the CNN debate on Thursday between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden in various ways, including participating in pre- and post-debate discussions, sharing their thoughts in real-time, and even hosting their own version of a debate.
CNN held the first debate of the election cycle featuring both Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden on Thursday night. It excluded all other candidates, including independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who advocated heavily for his inclusion but was ultimately kept out by CNN, which stated he failed to meet the debate criteria.
In response to his exclusion, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held his own presidential debate streamed over platforms such as X and Rumble. Unlike the CNN debate, Kennedy’s version took place in a studio in Los Angeles in front of a live audience. The debate was moderated by libertarian commentator and former journalist John Stossel. According to metrics provided by X, Kennedy’s debate was viewed almost seven million times.
Kennedy, who appeared on stage alongside a screen featuring the CNN debate, answered the same questions given to Trump and Biden. As the two other candidates answered questions, the CNN debate would be paused to allow Kennedy an opportunity to respond accordingly. Stossel and Kennedy agreed beforehand to follow the same rules that CNN had outlined for their debate.
Meanwhile, fellow independent candidate Dr. Cornel West issued both a statement and video message over X following the debate. In his video message, West called the debate a “pure farce,” as well as appalling and sad, before adding that Trump was living in “a world of make-believe” and that Biden was senile and “flat as a pancake.”
In his statement, West wrote, “This presidential debate is pure farce! Trump’s lies, contempt and hatred are beyond appalling! Biden’s lies, senility and emptiness are pathetic! Both are simply living in worlds far removed from the realities of America and abroad! Both will continue the barbaric genocide in Gaza! Is America now addicted to self-destruction? My presidential campaign provides a stark alternative of Truth Justice and Love!”
In addition to his statement, West also appeared on theGrio, a Black news, style, and opinion network, for a post-debate special show. West joined hosts April Ryan and Natasha Alford for an episode of the ongoing election cycle coverage titled “Black America Must Vote,” giving his perspective on the debate itself as well as the answers given by the other candidates.
In the lead-up to the debate, Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver released a scheduled list of events he would be participating in throughout the day and into Friday afternoon. Oliver first took part in a Scripps News recording in Washington, D.C., as well as an X Space with podcaster and entrepreneur Mario Nawfal before live-blogging his thoughts on the debate as it was happening and answering questions as the CNN hosts gave them to Trump and Biden.
A video of Oliver’s pre-debate coverage with Scripps News can be viewed below:
Following the debate, Oliver joined Dave Weigel of the Washington Post for an interview that aired early the following morning. He then participated in a studio interview with Rising host Robby Soave, who also spoke with several other candidates that morning, before joining Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis. Videos of Oliver’s post-debate coverage will be added to this article as they become available.
Alongside Oliver, Green Party candidate Jill Stein also live-blogged her responses to the debate. She then streamed a post-debate response following its conclusion. “CNN, Biden, [and] Trump locked us out of this ‘debate,’ but they can’t silence our voices for people, planet, [and] peace!” Stein said.
The response, held over X and YouTube, gave Stein an opportunity to address the topics presented by the CNN moderators, as well as share her thoughts on the answers delivered by Biden and Trump. According to metrics, Stein’s post-debate response was viewed over 73,000 times on X and over 12,000 times on YouTube.
Readers are welcome to share information on post-debate responses from other candidates not mentioned in this article in the comments below.
I agree Robert F Kennedy Jr. hit a home run. This is out of the box thinking. Also, Jill Stein and Dr. Cornell West did a great job. If there is another Trump / Biden debate Chase Oliver should do something similar as to what Robert F Kennedy Jr. did.
To Stossel’s credit, he actually did a really good job. Much better than CNN’s moderators. I’d like to see him do a long-form in-depth interview with Rectenwald about the LNC events.
There has not been a better opportunity for third party candidates than this election for quite a while. Hopefully, all ballots will have a wide choice of them, and whoever wins does so with considerably less than 50% of the popular vote.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held his own presidential debate streamed over platforms such as X and Rumble. […] Kennedy, who appeared on stage alongside a screen featuring the CNN debate, answered the same questions given to Trump and Biden. As the two other candidates answered questions, the CNN debate would be paused to allow Kennedy an opportunity to respond accordingly. ”
Excellent, this is exactly what I had been hoping he would do. The only difference is that I had been hoping for Elon Musk instead of John Stossel.