Gary Johnson, Jill Stein Don't Qualify For Debate Stage

The first presidential debate will feature Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — and no one else.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Friday that third-party candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson did not qualify for the first debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, on Sept. 26. The Oct. 4 vice presidential debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, will only feature Tim Kaine and Mike Pence.

To qualify, candidates must have at least 15 percent support in an average of five major polls. Johnson is polling at 8.4 percent and Stein at 3.2 percent, according to the commission. The five polls used are ABC-Washington Post, CBS-New York Times, CNN-Opinion Research Corporation, Fox News and NBC-Wall Street Journal.

Johnson and Stein could still qualify for the second and third presidential debates — Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri, and Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in Las Vegas.

After some speculation that he may not, Trump has signaled his intent to attend all three of the presidential debates hosted by the nonpartisan commission. He has, though, said that there is only one way the debates will be fair in his eyes: no moderator.

"I think maybe we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate, because I think the system is being rigged so it's going to be a very unfair debate," Trump said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"I think we should have a debate with no moderator, just Hillary and I sitting there talking," he said.

Trump referred to NBC's commander-in-chief forum moderated by Matt Lauer, whose performance was widely criticized for, among other reasons, being too easy on the Republican nominee.

"They all said I won and that Matt Lauer was easy on me," said Trump. "Well, he wasn't. I thought he was very professional, I have to be honest. I think he's been treated very unfairly."

Images via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons