The Big Hurdle Between R.F.K. Jr. and the Debate Stage (It’s Not a Poll)

President Biden’s campaign has been clear: He will debate former President Donald J. Trump only one-on-one.

That hasn’t stopped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from trying.

As the deadline to qualify for the June 27 debate draws closer, Mr. Kennedy, who is running for president as an independent, has said he’s confident he can still meet host CNN’s requirements, while ramping up accusations that the news organization rigged the process. Last week, in an escalation of his pressure campaign on the host network, he filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against CNN, saying that it had colluded with the Biden and Trump campaigns to exclude Mr. Kennedy from the debate in violation of campaign finance law.

“CNN adopted criteria that they believed would keep me off the stage,” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview that aired last week, adding that the network was also interpreting those criteria in a way that “weights them towards the candidates they want on the stage.”

CNN has denied the accusations. But Mr. Kennedy’s rivals do have a mutual interest in boxing him out, as The New York Times previously reported. Mr. Kennedy is drawing support away from both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, and both campaigns are concerned about the potential for him to swing the election in key battleground states.

In at least one respect, Mr. Kennedy has reason for optimism. Recent polling has positioned Mr. Kennedy closer to qualifying for the debate stage than any third-party candidate in more than three decades. Mr. Kennedy must earn at least 15 percent support in four approved national polls by June 20 to qualify for the debate.

He currently has three of those qualifying polls, one from CNN, one from Quinnipiac University and one from Marquette University Law