Republican presidential candidates who failed to qualify for Wednesday night's debate should not blame the Republican National Committee, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.
Eight candidates qualified to take part in the debate, the first in this election cycle, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Former President Donald Trump, who polls show is leading the race by a wide margin, decided not to take part.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, among the expected participants, might not be able to attend after injuring himself while playing basketball and was taken to an emergency room.
Former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, conservative radio host and former California GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder, and businessman Perry Johnson failed to meet the requirements of polling at 1% in at least two national polls and having at least 40,000 donors by Monday night.
Candidates also needed to sign a loyalty pledge saying they would support whoever the GOP candidate ends up being.
Johnson and Elder are suing the RNC for not including them in the debate.
"I have nothing against all four of these candidates. They are far better than Joe Biden," McDaniel told Politico. "But the rules are the rules. We were very clear about it. We applied them equally to every candidate. And unfortunately, they fell short for this debate."
In an interview with Politico, a frustrated Hurd blamed the RNC for not explicitly specifying which polls would count toward debate qualification.
McDaniel wasn't buying it.
"We put forth metrics that we felt would create good polling," she said, Politico said.
"I don't think many people woke up today surprised that these four candidates didn't make the stage. And I hope they do well, but you got to say, 'Well, maybe I shouldn't have gotten in as late as I did. Maybe I should have gotten in earlier. I would have had a longer runway to get the polling that I needed.' I mean, it's not easy when you have zero name ID to get to 1% in three national polls."
Candidates who did qualify for the debate include Burgum, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.