Photo by: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
A video of the Green Party’s Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein and her running mate, Cheri Honkala being arrested as they attempted to enter the grounds of the Presidential Debate on Tuesday, has gone viral.
Stein, along with the other third party candidates were not permitted to participate in the event, organized by the Council of Presidential Debates. The CPD’s rules dictate that only nominees with an average of at least 15% of support in 5 chosen, national polls are allowed to enter the debate.
In protest to being barred from participating, Stein and Honkala held a press conference near Hofstra University, where the presidential nominee stated, “we are here to bring the courage of those excluded from our politics to this mock debate, this mockery of democracy.” After which they began proceeding to the debate hall, but were met by local police, who would not them in. Though they refused to leave the premise and were consequentially arrested for blocking traffic. They were not released for 8 hours.
This is not Stein’s first attempt to be included in the debates. She has petitioned the CPD to allow all of the candidates who have “demonstrated minimal level of support,” to join. She received over 14,000 signatures.
Stein, along with third party candidates, Virgil Goode, Rocky Anderson and Gary Johnson, will be debating each other on Tuesday night at 8 PM. It is going to be moderated by former CNN host Larry King and streamed on Ora.tv and YouTube.
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