Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley on Sunday accused the Democratic National Committee (DNC) of trying to help his rival, Hillary Clinton, by limiting the television exposure of party debates.
{mosads}When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether the party committee is trying deliberately to shield Clinton from her opponents’ challenges, O’Malley said “yes.”
“In fact, that’s also why, for the first time ever, they have limited the number of debates to just four. I think, at this same time eight years ago … we had had 16 debates,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, said Saturday night’s debate in New Hampshire gave him a welcome opportunity to score points with voters nationwide.
“I thought last night’s debate was actually a very good exchange of those ideas. And I hope we have more of them. I was able to make a case for a new generation of leadership, fresh approaches, new ideas to confront these challenges,” he said.
O’Malley’s comments come on the heels of David Axelrod, a former top political adviser to President Obama, and former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary, questioning the DNC’s fairness after it denied Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) access to a crucial voter database.
The DNC briefly suspended the Sanders campaign’s access to the database after its staff improperly accessed voter information that belonged to the Clinton campaign.