After her performance in the “Happy Hour” debate on Fox News, Republican Carly Fiorina’s profile rose from obscurity to top-ten prominence overnight. However, that’s not enough to satisfy CNN.

The rules for the September 16th Republican debate hosted by CNN have left the singular female candidate out of the GOP primary mix once again.

Coincidence? That’s for the nation to decide.

CNN’s formula to establish who will be on the stage two weeks from Wednesday relies heavily on polls from July — prior to Fiorina’s surge.

According to The Washington Post:

CNN claims it cannot legally change its debate criteria in a way that would allow Carly Fiorina into the debate.

WaPo goes on to quote several individuals who claim CNN’s “legal” defense is baseless, including former head of the Federal Election Commission, Brad Smith.

Regardless of legalities, Fiorina herself is not happy with CNN’s choices. Appearing on “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News, Fiorina voiced her frustration to host Martha McCallum:

It’s frustrating, to say the least, if CNN is putting their thumb on the scale. I’m also comfortably within the top five in virtually every statewide poll that has been taken since that debate–and there have been many. And of course we have statewide primaries, not national primaries …

Read the article “CNN is Locking Out a Strong GOP Primary Candidate. But Is It Just Protecting Hillary?” on ijreview.com.