Huckabee: Bernie's problems are largely of his own making
Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee breaks down 2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders' Fox News town hall.
Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee on Tuesday called out the Democratic National Committee for bending the debate qualifying rules to benefit former candidate Michael Bloomberg, yet now excluding Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
“How come Tulsi isn't there?,” the former Arkansas governor asked on "America's Newsroom."
Huckabee said that he hopes Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, the only two candidates scheduled to debate Sunday in Arizona, would call out the DNC for excluding Gabbard from the upcoming debate.
“The Democrats changed the rules in order to get Mike Bloomberg into the debate and then they changed the rules to keep Tulsi Gabbard out so you're going to have two old white guys sitting on the stage," said Huckabee.
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Gabbard said Monday night on Fox News there's a lot of "hypocrisy" within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and from media partners hosting the presidential debates when it comes to giving female politicians a fair shot.
Gabbard – the last remaining woman in the Democrats’ presidential race – has been shut out of the party’s next debate with a rule change that makes it mathematically impossible for her to claim a spot.
Under the party’s most recent set of debate rules, any candidate who had won at least one delegate in the party’s first 25 nomination contests had the right to take the stage. Gabbard gained two delegates in American Samoa’s caucuses on Super Tuesday.
But on Friday, the DNC announced new criteria requiring candidates to hold at least 20 percent of all awarded delegates by the time of the next scheduled debate in Phoenix on March 15.
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Huckabee said that they also changed another rule, accommodating Biden's request to sit during the event.
“They’re not going to have the one person who would bring what the Democrats say they celebrate, and that’s diversity, and they sidelined her. I don’t understand that and they haven’t explained it.”
The billionaire former New York City mayor was allowed into the debates last month after the party lifted a requirement for candidates to show a certain amount of individual donations. He has since ended his campaign after a dismal showing in the March 3 primaries.
Fox News' Julia Musto contributed to this report.
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