SEATTLE –– A day after he learned he would be left out of the first presidential debate, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson called it "a rigged game."
Johnson, the former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, was campaigning in Seattle Saturday.
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Friday that Johnson did not qualify for the first presidential debate because he did not reach the required 15 percent polling threshold. Only Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump will take part in the Sept. 26 nationally televised debate.
"It's a rigged game, man," Johnson said at a news conference. "Democrats and Republicans make up the presidential debate commission, 15 percent is not the law. It's Democrats and Republicans not wanting a Ross Perot on the stage again."
Johnson is polling at an average 8 percent nationally, the commission said.