Democratic National Committee Vice Chair and Hawaii Congresswoman [crscore]Tulsi Gabbard[/crscore] insists the “most egregious part of the position that’s been taken, the policy that the DNC has put in place with regards to the presidential debates is this exclusivity clause.” (RELATED: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Banned From Democratic Debate)
Gabbard, appearing on “MSNBC Live” with Peter Alexander Monday, explained the exclusivity clause “basically says our presidential candidates are going to be punished if they go and participate in a so-called non-sanctioned DNC debate.” Gabbard suggested “people are hungry. They want to be involved, they want to be engaged, they want to hear where candidates stand on issues that are important to them. And I just think that this process should be as open, as transparent, and as democratic as possible.” (RELATED: Heilemann: DNC Chair Is Lying About Consulting With Vice Chairs On Number Of Debates)
Peter Alexander: Congresswoman Gabbard, you’ve made it very clear your frustrations with the Democratic National Committee in terms of its handling of this prenomination process, that there are there are only a total of six debates. That means with one down, we only have five more to go. Do you think that the Democratic party should add more debates with or without Joe Biden? Is it necessary at this point that that change and I should ask, will you be and have you been invited to the future Democratic debates beginning in November?
Tulsi Gabbard: You know, I do think that there should be more debates. But I think the most egregious part of the position that’s been taken, the policy that the DNC has put in place with regards to the presidential debates is this exclusivity clause, which has never put in place by the DNC before during a presidential election. That basically says our presidential candidates are going to be punished if they go and participate in a so-called non-sanctioned DNC debate. If there is a group or a community that wants to put together a presidential debate, that if they participate in that, then they’ll no longer be able to join these six sanctioned DNC debates. So look, people are hungry. They want to be involved, they want to be engaged, they want to hear where candidates stand on issues that are important to them. And I just think that this process should be as open, as transparent, and as democratic as possible.
