Appearing on Newsmax this weekend, Democratic presidential candidate Robert. F. Kennedy (RFK Jr.) slammed the 2024 Democrat presidential primary as “Soviet-like” because of the Democratic National Committee’s decision to nix any primary debates.
As previously reported, in April the DNC said it’d support President Joe Biden’s reelection by not sponsoring any primary debates this election season.
The decision prompted massive criticism, including from RFK Jr.
“Abolishing that primary in order to fix the election, it’s like in the Soviet state, when the party picks the candidate instead of the people. It’s just wrong. At this point in our history. We should be showing how good our democracy is, how well on functions and not that it’s rigged,” he said on Newsmax this Saturday.
While on Newsmax, RFK Jr. also slammed the DNC for changing the 2024 Democrat presidential primary schedule.
As previously reported, for decades Democrats have kicked off their presidential elections in Iowa (first caucus) and New Hampshire (first primary). But not anymore. In an ostensible bid to better represent minority voters, the DNC voted in February to begin the 2024 presidential election in South Carolina instead.
“New Hampshire has been first in the nation for 80, 90 years. New Hampshire and Iowa play these key roles,” Kennedy said before going on to compare New Hampshire to the other states.
“In all the other states, you can get money/contributions from billionaires if you’re a candidate, and then aerial bombard those states from 30 thousand feet with advertising, [and then] drop in occasionally and have a very highly staged rally that’s in a bubble with the screened audience of your supporters. It’s kabuki theater,” he added.
Whereas in New Hampshire, he continued, you gotta play hardball.
“In New Hampshire, you gotta do politics. You gotta go into the nail salons and the diners and gas stations and barbershops. And there’s an old lady there who reads The Economist and the Financial Times, and she’s going to ask you follow-up questions. CNN will never do that to you. The New York Times will never do that,” he said.
“But when you go to New Hampshire, they vet you like you’re running for city council. And they play this important gateway role for the Democrat Party and the Republican Party of forcing politicians to do real retail politics and to listen to what real Americans are going through on the ground,” he added.
This isn’t the first time Kennedy has spoken out about the DNC’s new rules. Speaking before the New Hampshire State House last week, he again slammed the DNC, going so far as to call for “a real democracy and a democratic election in New Hampshire.”
“There’s so many Americans who believe that the system now is rigged, the economic system, but also the political system, that the elections are fixed. And we ought to be, the Democratic Party particularly, ought to be making this election a template for democracy to our country and to the rest of the world,” he said.
He echoed this sentiment in an Epoch Times interview he conducted in April.
“Debates and town halls are part of the democratic process. We’re living in a time when there’s a lot of Americans who believe our democracy is broken. And I think both political parties have to bend over backwards to start restoring faith in democracy and election integrity,” he said at the time.
“Americans think the entire system is rigged against them. And if the DNC goes through with this — its plan to not have debate — I think that will serve as … an unfortunate confirmation to a lot of Americans that the system is indeed rigged,” he added.
RFK Jr. likewise isn’t the only person to complain about the DNC’s rules. So has actor James Van Der Beek, who played Zach Morris on the classic sitcom “Saved by the Bell.”
“I cannot get over the fact that the Democratic National Committee is saying there will not be a debate to decide the nominee for president. Are you f–king kidding me? There’s no debate?” he said in an Instagram post published last week.
“There’s no debate over an 80-year-old man who, if he lives, will be the oldest sitting president in the history of the country? And if he doesn’t live, has a vice president whose approval rating is worse than his?” Van Der Beek added.
Look:
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Fellow Democrat presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has also complained about the rules:
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
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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