CNN will face a high-profile test on Thursday night when it hosts a debate between President Biden and former President Trump, the first nationally televised showdown between the two men since 2020.
CNN and its hosts, veteran anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will be under immense pressure to ask all the necessary questions of Trump and Biden and be seen as fair in moderating the debate.
CNN said the microphones used by both candidates will be muted throughout the debate except when the candidate is speaking, and that Tapper and Bash will be “authorized to take all necessary steps to maintain timing and ensure a civil debate.”
This is a precautionary measure to prevent a repeat of the heated debate between the two in 2020, in which the two exchanged numerous insults.
But it also raises the stakes for Tapper and Bash, who have already faced criticism from the Trump campaign that they are not being impartial.
On Monday, CNN morning show host Casey Hunt cut off the interview midway after Trump press secretary Caroline Leavitt tried to question Tapper and Bash’s objectivity.
Hunt said he would not tolerate Leavitt using his airwaves to insult his colleagues.
The Trump campaign, which frequently attacks the mainstream media as its adversary, has exaggerated the conflict.
Levitt later appeared on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast and said that CNN had “taken her off the air.”[doesn’t] The president’s spokesmen and defenders appeared on the same network. [allegations of bias].”
In a statement hours later, CNN defended its two lead anchors and denied the criticism.
“Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are respected veteran journalists with a combined total of more than 50 years covering politics,” the outlet reported. “They have extensive experience hosting major political debates, including this season’s CNN Republican presidential primary debates. There are no better people than these two to co-host a substantive, fact-based debate. We look forward to the debate in Atlanta on June 27.”
CNN CEO Mark Thompson, who took over the company’s massive cable news business last fall, said in an interview this week that his goal for Thursday night’s debate was to put the spotlight on the two candidates on stage, not on CNN.
“It was a special moment for us to get it,” he said. The New York Times“Much of the reaction from the public, other media and other politicians will depend on the stars of the show: President Trump and President Biden.”
Thompson also defended the format of the debate, which was held without a studio audience, and the decision to mute microphones.
“It’s done in a way that’s designed, at least in principle, to let in as much light as possible and not be overwhelmed with heat,” he said.
CNN has a long history with Trump, who once posted an image on social media of himself dressed as a WWE character fighting another wrestler with the CNN logo as his head.
During Trump’s first term, CNN was led by Jeff Zucker, the former NBC executive who brought “The Apprentice” to primetime.
More recently, the network faced internal headaches and external backlash over a town hall event it hosted with President Trump last summer.
The May event drew the channel’s largest single-night audience of 2023, but was dominated by Trump’s attacks on host Caitlin Collins and misleading statements about the 2020 election and his ongoing legal troubles.
The town hall came at a time when Zucker’s successor as producer, Chris Licht, was overhauling the network’s programming and skeptics were warning it was a veiled attempt to court conservative viewers. Licht was fired a few weeks after the Trump town hall and replaced by Thompson.
People inside the network said there was a palpable sense of tension and mounting pressure ahead of Thursday night.
“No one wants a repeat of what happened last May,” a network staffer told The Hill this week. “This is going to be the most high-profile show for us, or anyone, this year, so everyone is proceeding with extreme caution.”
Thursday’s debate will be simulcast on nearly every cable and network news channel, creating an opportunity for both candidates to reach tens of millions of viewers and intensifying the intense scrutiny CNN will face because the entire debate will be broadcast live.
“My guess is there’s going to be a lot of interest,” said Frank Sesno, a longtime cable news channel employee who now teaches journalism at George Washington University. “Some of it will come from people who are drawn to train wrecks. It’s not necessarily positive, enthusiastic, ‘I can’t wait for the debate’ interest. But if you see these two on stage together, unscripted… would you really want to miss it?”
