Republican critics are questioning whether CNN will host a fair and square debate on Thursday, given the network’s repeated displays of bias against former President Donald Trump. CNN has frequently tried to fact-check Trump in real-time during his coverage, as well as immediately after live coverage ends. On Monday, CNN’s Kasie Hunt abruptly ended an interview with Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt when she highlighted CNN’s Jake Tapper’s long history of criticizing Trump.
Tapper is co-hosting the presidential debate on Thursday alongside Dana Bash, both of whom are known critics of Trump. They have suggested that Trump is a liar, has been tougher on corrupt Democrats than Putin, pushed Russia propaganda, used rhetoric similar to Adolf Hitler, pushed falsehoods “fast and furious,” “tried to kill democracy once [and] [h]e’ll do it again,” is an antisemite, could cause a civil war, and have blamed Trump’s rhetoric for a New Zealand shooting.
I’m sure the CNN debate will be fair and unbiased based on all of CNN’s actions for the last 8 years!” Donald Trump Jr. mocked. Trump’s real debate opponent on Thursday will be CNN,” businessman David Sacks posted on X. Americans cannot trust Jake Tapper or Dana Bash to treat President Trump fairly,” Fox News contributor Leo Terrell said. Dana Bash “was also married to one of the 51 ‘Intel experts’ who lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop being ‘Russian disinformation,'” X Strategies CEO Alex Bruesewitz said.
CNN defended Tapper and Bash by calling them “well respected veteran journalists who have covered politics for more than five decades combined,” according to a statement obtained by the Hill. Despite this defense, Republicans’ concerns seem valid, as the debate’s optics appear to favor corrupt President Joe Biden. Biden’s performance expectations are low, the debate rules benefit Biden, and CNN analysts will fact-check immediately after its telecast, CNN political director David Chalian vowed on Monday.
Trump agreed to allow CNN to moderate the debate upon promising Biden that he would debate him anywhere, anyplace, and anytime. Trump said he called Biden’s bluff by accepting the CNN debate, as reported by the Washington Examiner: “What they did, I’m pretty sure, is that they approached me with a debate that I couldn’t take. They knew I wouldn’t accept that because it was CNN, Dana Bash, Jake Tapper. So they thought they would present it, I would say no, and they would say we can’t debate because Trump said no. So I said yes before they even gave me the terms.
Biden rejected participating in more than two debates. Trump said Biden had agreed to do so. The second debate is scheduled for September. Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.