The Washington Examiner reports that presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has qualified for the first Republican presidential debate that is scheduled to take place in August. 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has put forth requirements that each candidate must satisfy in order to qualify for the debate.

The requirements include having over 40,000 unique donors with at least 200 donors in 20 unique states and polling at over 1% in at least three qualifying national polls - or two national and one early nominating state poll.

Ramaswamy announced on Saturday that he has satisfied both requirements, thereby qualifying for the August debate.

With regard to the donors, Ramaswamy claims that he has more than 65,000.

And, with regard to the polling, Ramaswamy cited two Morning Consult polls putting him at 8%, a Harvard Harris poll putting him at 10%, and a Kaplan strategies poll putting him at 12%.

Ramaswamy released a statement, saying, "The RNC’s debate stage criteria are stringent but fair. I am a first-time candidate who started with very low name ID, no political donors, and no pre-existing fundraising lists."

Ramaswamy, in the statement, went on to take a bit of a shot at some of the other Republican presidential candidates who are struggling to qualify - such as former Vice President Mike Pence.

He said: "If an outsider can clear the bar, politically experienced candidates should be able to as well: if you can’t hit these metrics by late August, you have absolutely no chance of defeating Joe Biden in the general election."

CBS News reports that Ramasqamy is now the sixth Republican presidential candidate to qualify for the party's August debate.

The six qualifiers include Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSanits (R), U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former President Donald Trump.

A big question is whether or not Trump will actually participate in the debate. He has already suggested that he may not, saying, "When you have a big lead, you don't do it."

It remains to be seen what Trump will actually do - he has yet to say anything definite on the subject.

There is no doubt, however, about Trump's "big lead" over the Republican primary field. Real Clear Politics currently has Trump beating DeSantis, the second-place Republican, by, on average, 31.7 percentage points. Ramaswamy is in third place with, on average, 5.9% of the vote - trailing Trump by roughly 45 percentage points.