The first presidential debate is set for September 26, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein will be there. Just not on stage.
As she did four years ago, she will protest her exclusion outside the debate site at Hofstra University and will likely get arrested again.
To cue up her planned protest, the Stein campaign released a three-minute online ad recapping her 2012 protest and distilling her critique of the presidential debate process.
Noting the League of Women Voters subsequently withdrew its sponsorship of the debate, Stein says, and the screen text echoes, "in the League's own words, 'the demands of the establishment parties would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter.'"
However, the quote is wrong. The League of Women Voters statement of 1988 reads, "...the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter." [Emphasis added.] That's a big difference. Stein is suggesting the League was criticizing the Commission for keeping third parties out. But the League's stated concern was specific to the demands the Bush and Dukakis campaigns had regarding the debate format – creating a staged event "devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions." The withdrawal of sponsorship did not have to do with who got invited.
Stein then informs viewers of her 2012 arrest, and the screen shows archival news footage from Democracy Now of the protest. We see her being led away by police, and speaking to the media from the back of a police car: "This is what democracy looks like in the 21st century."
We then see her interviewed on Democracy Now after her release describing the ordeal: "We were taken to a dark site ... an unmarked facility that was basically being run by, I think, Homeland Security and the Secret Service and local police ... handcuffed tightly to these metal chairs for about seven hours ... until the debates were long over..."
But the campaign's website doesn't offer a plan to get Stein 15 percent support in the polls – the only way she can actually secure a debate invite under the Commission's rules.
As she did four years ago, she will protest her exclusion outside the debate site at Hofstra University and will likely get arrested again.
To cue up her planned protest, the Stein campaign released a three-minute online ad recapping her 2012 protest and distilling her critique of the presidential debate process.
Jill Stein Misquotes League of Women Voters
Stein narrates, explaining that presidential debates used to be sponsored by the League of Women Voters until 1988, "but Democrats and Republicans wanted control over these debates. So they created a private corporation called the Commission on Presidential Debates ... to silence political opposition."Noting the League of Women Voters subsequently withdrew its sponsorship of the debate, Stein says, and the screen text echoes, "in the League's own words, 'the demands of the establishment parties would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter.'"
However, the quote is wrong. The League of Women Voters statement of 1988 reads, "...the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter." [Emphasis added.] That's a big difference. Stein is suggesting the League was criticizing the Commission for keeping third parties out. But the League's stated concern was specific to the demands the Bush and Dukakis campaigns had regarding the debate format – creating a staged event "devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions." The withdrawal of sponsorship did not have to do with who got invited.
Stein then informs viewers of her 2012 arrest, and the screen shows archival news footage from Democracy Now of the protest. We see her being led away by police, and speaking to the media from the back of a police car: "This is what democracy looks like in the 21st century."
We then see her interviewed on Democracy Now after her release describing the ordeal: "We were taken to a dark site ... an unmarked facility that was basically being run by, I think, Homeland Security and the Secret Service and local police ... handcuffed tightly to these metal chairs for about seven hours ... until the debates were long over..."
Can You Get Jill Stein into The Debates?
Stein then pledges to return to Hofstra Monday "demanding real democracy ... and that begins with opening up the debates to include all candidates on the ballot." The ad ends with Stein urging viewers to help her get on the debate stage, pointing them to a website page with suggested actions like signing a petition and directly contacting debate commission board members.But the campaign's website doesn't offer a plan to get Stein 15 percent support in the polls – the only way she can actually secure a debate invite under the Commission's rules.