Rep. Tim Ryan didn't qualify for next month's Democratic presidential candidate debate, but he said Thursday that doesn't mean he's ready to step out of a race that's "just starting."
"This is not going to stop us at all," the Ohio lawmaker told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Obviously you want on, but we're moving forward."
To pare down the size of the field taking the debate stage, the Democratic National Committee required that candidates must gain at least 2% in four state or national surveys whose pollsters the DNC recognized, and had to have 130,000 unique donors from at least 20 states.
The rules resulted in just 10 candidates meeting the requirements to participate, and leaving 10 others, including Ryan, off the stage.
“The metrics are such an artificial barrier, I think, to the natural flow of a campaign," Ryan said Thursday. "I mean, we’re picking up endorsements left and right.”
On Wednesday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, dropped her bid for the presidential nomination when it became clear that she would not meet the requirements to go on stage.
“We’ve got time and money to keep going, so this race is just starting, not ending,” said Ryan, noting that he is running as a moderate Democrat, so he thinks he can defeat President Donald Trump.
He also Thursday slammed the president, saying "a lot of people think that this guy has some mental health issues."
"He is so erratic,” he said. “We’re going to buy Greenland? I mean, what the hell are we even talking about here when people are losing their jobs?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.