It'll get tougher to make the Dem debate stage — Pentagon press tension

ABC News's David Muir, left, and Martha Raddatz speak before a Democratic presidential primary debate on Dec. 19, 2015 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. | AP/Jim Cole

Democratic presidential candidates are hoping for more camera time on the debate stage, while the Pentagon reaches a milestone with reporters the White House hasn’t touched. Welcome to On Media.

ABC NEWS, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UNIVISION, will host the third Democratic presidential debate in September, the Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday, saying it was raising both the polling and fundraising bars for candidates to qualify.

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The debate is set for Sept. 12 and could extend to a second night, Sept. 13, if enough candidates meet the threshold to participate. The location and moderators have not yet been announced.

Like the first two Democratic presidential debates — which are set for next month on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo and for July on CNN — the September debate and a fourth, to be held in October, will cap participants at 10 per night. But it will be more difficult for the nearly two dozen 2020 Democratic hopefuls to make the stage.

POLITICO's Zach Montellaro and I have more details here on the new polling and fundraising thresholds — and how the candidates measure up so far.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan speaks to reporters after a classified briefing for members of Congress on Iran on May 21, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington. | AP/Patrick Semansky

THE PENTAGON PRESS CORPS has chafed for months at what reporters see as a sharp decline in access to information, including limited access to officials during trips. Celebrities such as Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and actor Gerard Butler have showed up in the briefing room, but Friday will mark a year since the Pentagon held an on-camera briefing with any department spokesperson.

Last Friday’s off-camera exchange with reporters, coming amid escalating tension with Iran and the deployment of additional troops to the Middle East, showed frustration spiking in the Pentagon press corps, as reporters grow concerned that the U.S. will end up in a military confrontation without the Trump administration ever having to sufficiently — and publicly — defend its case for it.

“We’re talking about some sort of strike on another country and nobody knows why,” said one Pentagon reporter who was not authorized to speak publicly.

“This is not just about having things on camera,” the reporter added, “but the reason we push on camera is we want people to publicly stand by their decisions to send other people’s children into harm’s way.”

More from my piece is here.

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