Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Thursday she is not reversing her decision to limit Democratic presidential candidates to only six primary debates, even in the face of criticism from Democratic contenders Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, and two DNC vice chairs.
"We have six debates, which are about the same number we had in '04 and in '08, when we had an open primary," Wasserman Schultz told The Daily Caller. "We believe strongly that six debates coupled with other opportunities that candidates will have to engage in forums and town hall meetings - that it is important to have our candidates in a variety of settings and not take them off the campaign trail."
Only four of those debates are scheduled to take place before the first caucus and primaries, and under an unprecedented rule, candidates are practically banned from participating in any debates not sanctioned by the DNC.
In the 2008 presidential election cycle, Democratic candidates participated in 26 debates, according to allowdebate.com group.
O'Malley, Sanders and thousands of Democrats and independents have suggested that the DNC is rigging the primary process in favor of Clinton. They contend that by limiting the number of debates, Clinton is less likely to face tough questions that could send her off script and further derail her already scandal-ridden campaign, as HNGN previously reported.
Last week, two DNC vice chairs even reversed course and called for more official debates, yet Wasserman Schultz has held her ground.
Approximately 100 protesters who gathered outside the DNC headquarters Wednesday afternoon were heard chanting, "Hey, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, we're gonna call a protest to get results!" and "No more GOP hate, we want more debate!" according to The Washington Examiner. They also delivered a petition with 23,000 signatures demanding more debates.
"Every time you have a debate there's about 3, 4, 5 days where the entire operation has to come off the trail, get ready - responsible campaigns anyway," Wasserman Schultz told The Daily Caller. "The early primary states are really important and you want to make sure that those voters have a chance to kick the tires and really get the up close detailed look that they pride themselves on."
She added: "So we believe that six debates are enough. In the other election cycles the debate schedule got out of control and so we wanted to get a little bit more control over it."
Clinton on Thursday declined to call for more debates, but said she would "certainly show up anywhere the Democratic national Committee tells us to show up," reported MSNBC.
"We're having six debates - period," Wasserman Schultz said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington, according to Bloomberg.
