NEW: CNN’s Debate Criteria Could Have A Silver Lining For Trump

As prognosticators continue debating whether President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump emerged victorious on the terms of two major debates, the door has been left open for a major twist to occur that could result in a silver lining for Trump.

To qualify for the debate, all participants must meet stringent requirements that heavily favor the two leading candidates. Some of the steps needed are perfunctory: for example, meeting the U.S. Constitution’s eligibility threshold for president, including being a natural born citizen of age 35 or above who has lived in the U.S. for the past 14 years. All must also have filed an official statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, a routine submission of paperwork that has been completed by three other candidates: Green Party’s Jill Stein, independent Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the independent left-leaning professor Cornel West.

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However, two high hurdles remain. Candidates must achieve 15% or more support in four nationally recognized polls sponsored by CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, Marquette University Law School, Monmouth University, NBC News, The New York Times/Siena College, NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist College, Quinnipiac University, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. They must also appear on a sufficient number of state ballots in order to win 270 Electoral College votes, the number needed to clinch the presidency.

Only one of those also-ran candidates — Kennedy — stands a chance, albeit slim, and that may be a whopping benefit to President Trump, the Western Journal reports.

As Forbes noted, Kennedy is nearing the polling threshold: he secured 14 percent in a recent Marist College Poll, 10 percent in a New York Times poll, and even 16 percent in a recent CNN poll and April Quinnipiac University poll. And while he is only on five state ballots so far, the black sheep of his iconic family has won financial support of his campaign from major donors including Daniel Thropp, who Politico reported wrote a six-figure check to RFK’s PAC last year. Celebrities including former NBA player John Stockton and actor Woody Harrelson have also been plain about touting their support.

Should he qualify for the debates on June 27th and September 10th, it could be argued that Kennedy would upend a carefully crafted strategy by Biden to set terms that would be most favorable. The Democrat’s conditions for the debate included having no audience, Fox News reports.

“The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering. As was the case with the original televised debates in 1960, a television studio with just the candidates and moderators is a better, more cost-efficient way to proceed: focused solely on the interests of voters,” Biden’s campaign wrote.

Biden’s camp also said the debate must be one-on-one, an obvious signal that they wish to avoid any ramifications of putting the president on stage with a spoiler candidate. Trump, meanwhile, has set no preconditions for debates, repeatedly saying he will debate “anywhere, any time, any place.” Pollsters will continue to explore the effect that Kennedy has on voters who feel antipathy toward both major candidates. A recent New York Times/Sienna poll that showed Trump leading in most battleground states also found that RFK drew more supporters of Trump in 2024 than Biden in 2020, complicating the prediction of whom RFK’s possible appearance may ultimately benefit.

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