American businessman and Republican presidential candidate from Michigan, Perry Johnson, has filed a second complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the Republican National Committee (RNC) and FOX News.
Earlier this week, Johnson criticized the RNC and Ronna McDaniels for a corrupt and rigged debate process.
“The corrupt and rigged RNC debate process has been a trainwreck from the beginning,” Johnson said in a statement.
“Our campaign hit every metric put forward by the RNC and we have qualified for the debate. It is clear that from the beginning, the RNC knew who they wanted on the stage and who they wanted to ban from the stage,” he added.
“It is clear that from the beginning, the RNC knew who they wanted on the stage and who they wanted to ban from the stage. Simply put, this is a flawed decision of a poorly run process of a corrupt organization. This morning, I am working with my team to take legal action against the RNC,” said Johnson.
From the press release:
Internally, the Johnson campaign believed it had hit the polling threshold Thursday, August 17th with the release of the Trafalgar National Poll in combination with the Harvard/Harris Qualifying Poll & Big Village Qualifying Poll.
It was however widely reported that Perry Johnson qualified by hitting the polling threshold on Friday, August 18th with the release of the Trafalgar Iowa Qualifying Poll, Trafalgar New Hampshire Qualifying Poll & Victory Insights National Qualifying Poll.
At 2:03pm, RNC Chief of Staff Richard Walters sent the Beat Biden Pledge to the Johnson campaign and notified the campaign for the first time that Johnson needed one more national qualifying poll to reach the threshold. This was the first communication the campaign had ever received from the RNC regarding his actual status in the debate.
At 3:38pm, the Johnson campaign responded and sent along its four media reported qualifying polls which all met the RNC’s threshold and asked for clarification.
- Trafalgar National Qualifying Poll
- Victory Insights National Qualifying Poll
- Trafalgar Iowa Qualifying Poll
- Trafalgar New Hampshire Qualifying Poll
At 3:47pm, Walters notified the campaign that the RNC was not recognizing the Victory Insights poll because it was ‘not a national poll.’ That assessment is completely misguided.
At approximately 11 p.m., Mr. Johnson received a call from Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and David Bossie, explaining that the McLaughlin poll would not be counted either and that he was not on the debate stage.
But McDaniel/Bossie did say that any poll which left a particular candidate out, could be a qualifying poll as well.
The Johnson campaign sent the RNC the Harvard/Harris poll, which asked a question excluding President Trump, in which Perry Johnson received 1%. Another qualifying poll.
The RNC responded, claiming the poll was biased.
Johnson officially filed a complaint on FEC against the RNC and FOX News.
“I am filing an FEC complaint against the RNC and Fox News for their corrupt debate process,” Johnson wrote on X.
I am filing an FEC complaint against the RNC and Fox News for their corrupt debate process.
You can read it here. https://t.co/jekOA345aH
— Perry Johnson (@PJQualityGuru) August 23, 2023
In an X post, Johnson wrote, “The RNC did rig these debates. The people should decide the GOP nominee, not DC elites. Ronna Romney McDaniel is corrupt and hasn’t had a single successful election cycle as Chair. She must resign before she costs us 2024.”
Johnson also released the following statement:
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I am obviously disgusted with how the debate process has been corrupted, but I am far more concerned about Joe Biden and the Democrats staying in power and continuing to destroy our country which is why I am calling for Ronna Romney McDaniel’s immediate resignation as RNC Chair. She is incapable of winning, she is incapable of leading and she will cost us elections up and down the ballot in 2024.
Ronna may be the longest serving chair in RNC history, but she is also going down as the most unsuccessful and corrupt Chair in the history of the Republican Party.
Republicans were decimated in 2018, she allowed Joe Biden to take the White House in 2020 and had the least successful midterm with a Democrat President in the history of the RNC. Now, she has corrupted and botched the debate process by attempting to hand-pick the 2024 GOP nominee with her elitist Washington D.C. buddies. This corruption and incompetence must come to an end or we will lose in 2024.
I encourage other Republicans to stand up and help the grassroots of the GOP take this Party back.
Read the full complaint below:
On Friday, Elder officially filed an FEC complaint against RNC.
“I have officially filed a complaint against the RNC with the Federal Election Commission for unequally applying debate standards and making illegal in-kind donations. Total fines for these violations could be over $100 MILLION,” Elder wrote.