O'Malley criticizes DNC for limiting 2016 debates

CEDAR RAPIDS – Presidential hopeful Martin O'Malley came out swinging against the Democratic National Committee during an Iowa campaign stop Wednesday, attacking a "small cabal" of party leaders for limiting the number of presidential debates the party will schedule for the 2016 primary cycle.

The DNC announced in May that there would be six party-sanctioned debates with at least one in both Iowa and New Hampshire, but that's not enough, O'Malley said. The DNC has yet to release the debate schedule, even as 10 of the top-polling Republican candidates will meet on an Ohio stage Thursday for their party's first primary debate.

"I want to say right off the bat here to those in Washington who think they can limit the number of debates that we're going to have before the Iowa caucuses, can circle the wagon and close off debates, I think they're going to have another thing coming when they talk to the people of Iowa," O'Malley said in the first minutes of his speech at the opening of his campaign office.

The number of unsanctioned debates has risen in recent election cycles, but the DNC this year has insisted on candidates signing an exclusivity clause, according to Politico and other news outlets. That means any candidate who participates in an unofficial debate would be barred from one that is party-sanctioned.

The former Maryland governor told reporters Wednesday that his campaign staff has been in conversations with DNC officials about concerns, "but it seems not to be heard," he said.

"I think it's outrageous frankly that anyone in the Democratic Party would think it's their job to tell the people of Iowa or New Hampshire or any state that they're not allowed to have presidential debates," he said. "It runs counter to everything that we believe as a country ... I'll let other candidates decide whether they want to be part of that other approach, that exclusive approach to politics."

O'Malley — who's polling at 1.4 percent nationally, according to Real Clear Politics — has said before at Iowa campaign stops that he's confident debating rivals like Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders to tighten the race in his favor.

Wednesday's 1:30 p.m. stop in Cedar Rapids was the first on a three-day tour of the state. O'Malley will speak alongside three other candidates Thursday at an Iowa Federation of Labor presidential forum in Altoona.

Ahead of that forum, the president of the Laborers International Union of North America on Thursday criticized O'Malley in a letter released to Bloomberg Politics for his opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline designed to carry Canadian oil south to the Gulf of Mexico. The letter called the former governor's stance "an attack on the jobs thousands" of union members.

"I don't believe that we should be building the Keystone pipeline," O'Malley responded when asked by a reporter. "I do believe that we should be building other infrastructure, and that sort of infrastructure that fuels a clean, green energy future would create a lot more jobs than the Keystone pipeline."

AT THE EVENT

SETTING: Opening of a campaign office in Cedar Rapids

CROWD: Approximately 45 people

REACTION: The crowd applauded O'Malley's attack on the Democratic National Committee for limiting the number of debates to six. "We need to have not just one debate, not just two debates, but many debates because those debates will shape the future of the country we give our kids."

NEXT STOP: O'Malley will speak Thursday at a forum hosted by the Iowa Federation of Labor. On Saturday he'll stop at meet-and-greet events in Fort Dodge, Grundy Center and Charles City.