The Republican candidates who didn’t qualify for a spot on the debate stage are not happy. Some have threatened legal action against the RNC, and others accuse the process of being rigged, even corrupt. One candidate may withdraw from the primary race today.

Politico is reporting today that three of those candidates who won’t be on the debate stage Wednesday night have some terse words about how the RNC has handled the process.

LARRY ELDER threatened to sue the RNC to stop the debate, arguing that he had qualified and that the committee should have accepted polls from Rasmussen to qualify. “The RNC Committee on Debates meets in Milwaukee today. Are they even aware their leaders are keeping voices off the stage that qualified?” Elder continued. “I’m calling for a discussion and a vote of the full committee on the rigged polling criteria set by the anti-conservative, anti-Trump RNC establishment.”

PERRY JOHNSON also threatened legal action against a “corrupt and rigged” process, laying out a lengthy timeline of the RNC’s decision not to count polls that Johnson thought should qualify him.

WILL HURD, who also fell short on polling, blasted the RNC not only for opaque qualification metrics but for the requirement to sign a pledge supporting the ultimate GOP nominee. “I have said from day one of my candidacy that I will not sign a blood oath to Donald Trump,” Hurd posted on X, calling the RNC’s approach “antithetical to the democratic process.”

Hurd calls the RNC pledge a “blood oath to Donald Trump,” which is not quite right. It’s a promise to support the eventual Republican candidate. Hurd shows his hand by saying it’s a blood oath to Trump. He assumes Trump will win the nomination. Listening to Hurd in interviews, it is easy to get the impression he is running for the same reason that Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson are running. It’s to stop Trump, preferably to knock out Trump from the race. It’s not really about them being president.

Signing the pledge is a qualification for having a spot on the debate stage, like it or not. No matter who the Republican nominee turns out to be, it will be someone better than Joe Biden. C’mon, man. We have a good bench of candidates. If a candidate doesn’t understand that, they don’t deserve to be the candidate. I know, I know. Trump said he won’t sign the pledge. He said that last time, too, in 2016, but he ended up signing it. He likes to make everything look like he put up a fight.

Will anyone drop out now? It seems to me if a candidate can’t reach the debate requirements, it is probably time to drop out. I hesitate to say anyone should drop out, especially five months out from the Iowa caucuses, the first opportunity for Republican primary voters to get to cast a vote. However, in such a large field of candidates, perhaps some early weeding out would be a good thing.

Earlier this month, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez called on candidates to drop out if they didn’t make the stage. Will he take his own advice now that he didn’t qualify? His spokeswoman told Bloomberg News that “Suarez will have an announcement about the future of his campaign” at some point today. We’ll see.