US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION UPDATE: At Democratic meeting, Martin O'Malley demands more debates

NEW YORK Speaking at the party's summer gathering in Minneapolis on Friday, former Maryland governor and presidential candidate Martin O'Malley accused the Democratic National Committee of rigging the presidential debate schedule in favor of Hillary Clinton.

"Whose decree is it? Where did it come from? To what end? For what purpose," O'Malley said during his fiery speech, which focused more on the debate schedule than his underdog campaign for the presidency.

Asked later by reporters why he did not specifically mention Clinton in his speech, O'Malley seemed to say he didn't need to.

"I didn't think I was hinting," he said. "I thought I was pretty clear."


O'Malley has long called on the DNC to add more debates to its schedule of six, announced earlier this month on the same day that the Republican party hosted its first of nine party-sanctioned debates in Cleveland, Ohio. The former governor, who has struggled to gain more than single-digit standing in national polls, has also recently upped his criticism of Clinton as complicit in the faulty branding of the Democratic field.

"Until we start having debates, our party is going to be defined and branded by questions like what did Secretary Clinton know?" O'Malley told reporters Thursday while campaigning in New Hampshire, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. "And when will the FBI conclude its investigation? That's not a formula for success in the fall."

But his comments Friday brought O'Malley's crusade for open debate to the doorstep of the organization responsible for setting the schedule. The DNC has so far declined to offer to make any changes to the calendar or an exclusivity clause that bars candidates who participate in unsanctioned debates from appearing in its sanctioned ones.

O'Malley's attorney, Joe Sandler, has said that the clause is "legally unenforceable," which the candidate himself reiterated Thursday. He said he had warned Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who serves as the chairwoman of the DNC, in meetings that limiting the number of debates would hurt the party, and be "undemocratic."

Wasserman Schultz was seated feet away from O'Malley while he was on stage at the meeting Friday. Their interaction after O'Malley's remarks concluded, captured by national television cameras and turned into gifs that quickly began to circulate on social media, showed tension as they shook hands. Wasserman Schultz offered hugs to both Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who took his turn addressing the meeting just after O'Malley.

"I believe she said thanks for coming," O'Malley said when asked about their handshake.