Republican presidential candidate Perry Johnson said that he filed a Federal Electoral Commission complaint against Fox News and the Republican National Committee over what he calls its "corrupt debate process."
Johnson, seen as a long-shot candidate, had gone to great lengths to attempt to qualify for the debates, selling $1 T-shirts in order to reach the goal of accumulating 40,000 individual donors for his campaign, one of the requirements to make it to the RNC debate stage. However, he failed to poll above 1%, barring him from the debate. On Wednesday, he announced that he filed a 60-page complaint with the FEC, decrying the debate process as "corrupt."
HOW TO WATCH THE REPUBLICAN DEBATE AND WHAT TIME DOES IT START
"In a collusive effort to cherry-pick participants in the August 23, 2023 Republican presidential primary debate ... FOX outsourced Debate participation criteria to the RNC, allowing the RNC to seize control over one of the most prominent opportunities available to presidential primary candidates," Johnson wrote. "In doing so, FOX blatantly violated Commission requirements for staging candidate debates and thereby made prohibited corporate contributions to each of the participating candidates.
Through its actions, Johnson accused Fox News and the RNC of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.
"With additional 2024 presidential primary debates quickly approaching, including a second to be hosted by FOX Business, another subsidiary of FOX Corporation, the Commission must swiftly condemn these violations to prevent FOX and the RNC from further corrupt manipulation of the primary process and the American public’s ability to obtain comprehensive information about their legitimate choices for the Republican nomination for president," Perry continued.
Johnson isn't the only one upset about the debate criteria; fellow Republican presidential candidates Larry Elder and Will Hurd launched their own protests ahead of the debate. Elder announced his intention to sue the RNC to put a stop to the debate on Tuesday.
"I intend to sue the RNC to halt Wednesday's presidential debate," Elder said. "I said from the beginning that it appeared the rules of the game were rigged, little did we know just how rigged it is. For some reason, the establishment leaders at the RNC are afraid of having my voice on the debate stage. Just as I had to fight to successfully be on the ballot in the California recall election, I will fight to be on that debate stage because I fully met all of the requirements to do so."
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Hurd also expressed his frustrations, calling the debate process "unacceptable."
"The lack of transparency and confusion around the RNC's debate requirements is antithetical to the democratic process," Hurd said. "The polling standards are arbitrary, unclear, and lack consistency. This is an unacceptable process for a presidential election. The American people deserve better."