Since deciding not to hold primary debates in 2024, the Democratic National Committee has been taking heat from all sides, including from President Biden’s Democrat challengers and Democrat voters.
As a general rule, the party of the incumbent president does not hold primary debates. In 2020, the RNC held no primary debates, despite then-President Trump facing primary challenges.
But with President Biden’s advancing age and overwhelming opposition to his reelection among Democrat voters, the lack of primary debates is viewed differently.
Biden currently has two Democrat opponents for the nomination, self-help guru Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Junior.
But unlike in 2020 when Trump’s challengers barely rated in the polls, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is polling surprisingly well against President Biden, consistently garnering around 20 percent.
Kennedy told Breitbart in late April that already too many voters believe the “whole system is rigged against them,” and the DNC choosing not to hold debates “is confirmation of that.”
But it isn’t just Biden’s challengers that want to hold primary debates.
Democrat voters, many of whom want someone other than the 80-year-old Biden as their nominee, are demanding debates as well.
In a Memorial Day video, actor James Van Der Beek blasted the DNC for refusing to hold debates during the primary, asking “How is this a democracy?”
Van Der Beek excoriated the DNC for not holding debates when the incumbent, “if he lives,” will be the oldest president in history. He noted that if Biden doesn’t survive, the presidency will go to “a vice president whose approval rating is worse” than Biden’s.
The “Dawson’s Creek” actor said Biden’s mental capacity is “obviously declining” and yet the DNC will hold no debates. He argued that if the DNC does not allow debates during the primary, then “this is not a democracy by the people” but a “democracy by them.”
