As Candidates Debate, Jill Stein Gets 'Escorted Out,' Stages 'People's Debate'

The Green Party presidential candidate doesn't have the polling numbers to get on the debate stage, and she says she was "escorted out" off Hofstra University campus Monday night, but Jill Stein is still endeavoring to make her voice heard during the first Presidential Debate.

Stein, of Lexington, is leveraging social media to live-stream her own "People's Debate" as she tweets out rebuttals to the main event, where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are going head-to-head.

Stein's campaign has been blasting out equal-opportunity criticism of the candidates, alternatively taking on both Democrats and Republicans, while positioning her party as the solution.

Earlier in the night, her campaign live-tweeted the process of being "escorted" off the Hofstra University following a press conference there, for which she was reportedly un-credentialed. She also posted on the reported arrest of 17 supporters she said stood outside the debate venue chanting, "Jill not Hill."

The theme of civil disobedience is not new for a campaign left chasing the spotlight in the face of low poll numbers that effectively ice Stein out of the national debates.

Stein herself previously had a warrant out for her arrest after spray-painting "I approve this message" on a bulldozer during a Dakota Access pipeline protest. That news, too, was disseminated by the Stein campaign itself.

Read More: There's a Warrant Out for Jill Stein's Arrest

As Stein herself points out, both major party candidates have historically low favorable ratings. However, that dearth has not translated to a meaningful bump for the Green Party, which still polling around 4 percent.

Stein and Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson have both protested their exclusion from the presidential debates, recently filing an unsuccessful lawsuit that challenged the Commission on Presidential Debates' criteria that candidates need at least 15 percent support in designated national polls to participate.

Image via Jill Stein campaign