GOP presidential candidate Larry Elder reiterated to Newsmax on Friday his belief that he “got shafted” by the Republican National Committee, adding that in addition to be being barred from the debate stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday, he was also “barred from the debate venue.”
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Elder filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission on Thursday over his stance that he qualified to participate in the debate, the first of the GOP primary season.
“Not only was I barred from the debate stage, I was barred from the debate venue,” Elder said on “America Agenda” on Friday. “They put up a sign at security, saying, ‘Don’t let Larry Elder’s campaign team even come in.'”
At issue is whether Elder and his campaign timely established his polling at 1% in three different national polls.
Elder says yes; the RNC said no. The RNC told Elder that one of his polls, Rasmussen Reports, could not be used because of its affiliation with former President Donald Trump.
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“Well even if that’s true, it’s not affiliated with me. Doesn’t matter if a poll is affiliated with any candidate, no candidate can use it,” Elder said.
In response to the imbroglio, Rasmussen posted that “we have not run a poll suggested by or paid for by President Trump or any of his surrogates.”
“Rasmussen contacted the RNC before they did their polling to make sure their polling was valid. So how am I supposed to know that Rasmussen is disqualified when they say they’re not disqualified, when I don’t find out they’re disqualified until after I turned it in?” Elder said.
Finally, Elder complained that his name didn’t even show up on several national polls.
“I don’t know how you’re supposed to get the 1% when they don’t even mention your name while mentioning names like Liz Cheney and Glenn Youngkin and Mike Pompeo, who aren’t even declared candidates,” Elder said. “So, as far as I’m concerned, to put it in three words, I got shafted.”
Elder’s complaint to the FEC says the RNC must apply standards “evenly.”
“If they don’t, they are making an in-kind contribution to the candidates they allow into the debate,” the complaint read.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel this week addressed the complaints brought by Elder and fellow candidate Perry Johnson, who’s also suing.
“The rules are the rules. We were very clear about it,” McDaniel said. “We applied them equally to every candidate. And, unfortunately, they fell short for this debate.”
Elder is focused on making debate No. 2.
“The next step, of course, is for me to make the debate next month in September at the Ronald Reagan Library, where the debate criteria is even more onerous … and we intend to make that. It’ll be the biggest comeback since George Foreman,” Elder said on the show.
Elder also said the winner of Wednesday night’s debate was another candidate who wasn’t there.
“I thought the winner of the debate was Donald Trump,” Elder said. “I thought it was prudent for him to have stayed away. It was obvious he was going to be used as a firing squad.”
Elder said he was happy that other candidates used the debate platform to extoll his presidential platform, including the “epidemic of fatherlessness” and soft-on-crime, George Soros-backed prosecutors. But Elder said he should be the one on the stage to shine light on those issues.
“So, even though I wasn’t there, I clearly have an influence the direction of where this campaign is going,” he said. “And that is why I’m running. I’m an America-first guy who knows that the No. 1 problem is the epidemic of fatherlessness, not systemic racism, who knows that the lie that Democrats have been pushing that America remains systemically racist is getting people killed.
“Elder needs to be up there.”
