RFK Jr.’s Campaign Floats ‘Serious Jail Time’ for CNN’s Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, and Others After Failing to Make Debate Stage

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

The quixotic presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a bonkers press release putting CNN “on clear notice” after the eccentric political scion failed to make the network’s debate stage.

Next week’s debate will feature President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump , but not Kennedy because the independent candidate failed to notch 15% in four qualified polls and is on an insufficient number of state ballots. As matters stand, Kennedy is only on the ballot in six states.

The debate will be hosted by CNN on June 27, and moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash , who, according to a Kennedy campaign statement issued Thursday, could be headed to the big house.

“CNN’s published debate criteria require that ‘a candidate’s name must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold,'” the statement reads. “CNN is holding Kennedy to this requirement but is not requiring Presidents Biden and Trump to meet this requirement by claiming they are each the ‘presumptive nominee’ of a political party.”

The statement says CNN’s “presumptive nominee” provision is “not in the [Federal Election Commission’s] debate regulation,” which the campaign argues is against the law. In the next paragraph, things take a turn:

This means CNN, and every member of CNN who is participating in planning, executing, and holding this debate, is at risk of prosecution, as happened to Michael Cohen, for violating campaign finance laws. This risk is now acute given that any further violation would be knowing and willful, and thus could carry with it serious jail time.

CNN and its staff are on clear notice, especially given the damning evidence that the Biden campaign has openly demanded Kennedy be excluded from the debates and Trump received assurances from CNN that Kennedy would be excluded.

The missive concludes by saying the campaign intends to pursue legal action against CNN for its “un-American conduct.”