CNN will host the first partisan debate of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, neither of whom have yet been officially certified as their respective parties’ nominees.
The 2020 debates have been riddled with contention, and Thursday’s will be no different. The network hosting the debate, CNN, is also likely to play a key role, and if past presidential debates hosted by CNN are any indication, the network will likely sabotage Biden’s behalf.
Here are three notable instances in which CNN operatives appear to have supported specific Democratic candidates.
Candy Crowley saves Obama from himself
On October 16, 2012, then-President Barack Obama participated in the second of three debates prior to the 2012 presidential election alongside current Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. The debate was hosted by CNN and moderated by then-anchor Candy Crowley.
A month before the debate, on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Islamic terrorists The attack on the US diplomatic compound and a nearby annex in Benghazi, Libya, killed four Americans: Ambassador Christopher Stevens, US diplomat Sean Smith, and CIA contract officers Tyrone Woods and Glenn Doherty.
Obama also offered encouragement to his teammates: “Candy, can you speak a little louder?”
In the days and weeks that followed, President Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, andSusan Rice, United Nations Ambassadorothers Condemned “Based on the best information we have to date…” Rice told “Face the Nation” at the time about the attack on YouTube videos made by Americans critical of Muslims. [the attack] “This hateful video sparked spontaneous protests in Benghazi in response to the events that had taken place a few hours earlier in Cairo, where violent protests erupted outside the embassy and were sparked by this hateful video.”
However, this video had no connection whatsoever to another coordinated terrorist attack against Americans on September 11th.
During a 2012 presidential debate, Crowley questioned Obama about the attacks, claiming that within 24 hours Obama had called them “acts of terrorism,” before Romney interjected to ask if Obama understood what he said correctly: “You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attacks that it was an act of terrorism, that it was not a spontaneous demonstration. Is that what you’re saying?”
“I want to make sure that for the record.” Romney “Because it took the president 14 days to call the Benghazi attacks an act of terrorism,” he continued.
Crowley later stepped away from his role as host to publicly side with Obama, claiming that the president “actually” called the Benghazi attack an act of terrorism, and Obama continued to encourage his teammates, asking, “Can you speak a little louder, Candy?”
A few weeks later, Obama defeated Romney to win reelection with 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.
Donna Brazile poses debate question to Hillary Clinton
Donna Brazile, a decades-long commentator on Democratic campaigns and news organizations, was an influential figure in the political landscape of 2016. At that point, Brazile had been appearing regularly on CNN as a Democratic strategist for years.
She also served in leadership roles at the Democratic National Committee for many years, so when DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz abruptly resigned as chair in July 2016 following the explosive news from Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks that the DNC had rigged the Democratic primaries in favor of Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders, Brazile immediately became interim chair while continuing as a CNN contributor.
“My job was to make all the Democratic candidates look good.”
But the WikiLeaks scandal became more personal for Brazil in October 2016, when leaked emails revealed that earlier that year he had told the Clinton campaign at least two questions that Hillary Clinton would be asked at the next primary debate, co-hosted by CNN.
One question was about the impact of the Flint, Michigan water crisis. The other was Death Penalty:
There is one thing that worries me about HRC.
Death Penalty
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have banned the death penalty. Thirty-one states, including Ohio, still have the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, 156 people have been put on death row and later released since 1973. Since 1976, the United States has executed 1,414 people. This represents 11 percent of Americans who were sentenced to death but later exonerated and released. Should Ohio and the other 30 states join the current list and abolish the death penalty?
Sent from Donna’s iPad. Follow her on Twitter: @donnabrazile.
That year, Brazil Apparently In an email to Clinton’s representatives, he promised to send along some further questions.
Brazile vehemently denied providing CNN questions to the Clinton campaign and, during a particularly testy exchange with CNN at the time, vented her frustrations by claiming she was a victim of Christian persecution.Fox News host Megyn Kellyconfronted Brazill about the allegations, and despite his sobs, he resigned from CNN just a few days later.
Donald Trump ultimately won the 2016 presidential election, and by March 2017, Brazile publicly acknowledged that she had, in fact, handed the debate questions to Clinton’s team.
“Emails made public in October revealed that among the many activities I engaged in as a Democratic activist and vice chair of the Democratic National Committee before becoming interim DNC chair was sharing town hall talking points with the Clinton campaign,” she said. I have written From an article published in Time magazine.
“My job is to make all Democratic candidates look good and I worked closely with both campaigns to make that happen,” she continued, “but sending that email is a mistake I will regret for the rest of my life.”
Chris Wallace blocks Trump from asking Biden about his son Hunter
Chris Wallace has had a successful journalistic career at CNN for two years now. He was expected to join the network in early 2022 and become a star host for CNN+, the network’s streaming service, when it launches in 2023. cancel Within just a month.
But in the fall of 2020, Wallace was still at Fox News, where he had worked for more than 15 years. In late September of that year, Wallace moderated a debate between then-President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden, in which Trump made hyperbolic statements and repeatedly tried to put Biden on the defensive about his son Hunter’s involvement with Burisma and Ukraine.
“Vice President, the final decision rests with you.”
Biden repeatedly said his son had done nothing wrong and that all accusations against him were “not credible,” claims that have since been proven false. The federal government introduced Hunter Biden’s infamous “Hell Laptop” as evidence in the recent trial, noting that it was previously authenticated as belonging to Hunter Biden.
But in 2020, Joe Biden claimed his son had been unfairly maligned. Wallace It appeared to help insulate Biden from Trump’s relentless attacks: “The wife of the mayor of Moscow gave your son $3.5 million. What has he done to deserve it?” Trump asked Biden.
“That’s not true. None of it is true,” Biden said, stammering.
As Trump continued to blast Biden over the accusations against Hunter Biden, Wallace repeatedly ordered Trump to back off. “Let him answer,” Wallace interjected, but the argument continued.
After about a minute, Wallace told Biden, “Mr. Vice President, you have the final say,” to which Biden quickly replied, “Well, I can’t say anything in front of this clown.”
Biden then tried to pivot and talk about the American people without specifically mentioning Trump’s family, but Trump tried to steer the conversation back to Hunter and Ukraine, at which point Wallace ended the discussion.
When Trump rhetorically asked if he could continue asking questions, Wallace responded with a raised voice: “The answer to the question is no.” Wallace then demanded that the debate move on to the next segment. He haphazardly asked both participants to stop interrupting each other, but targeted Trump in particular: “I’m pleading with you to do that.”
When Trump asked about Biden’s behavior, Wallace countered, “Frankly, you’re interrupting more than you used to.”
Nearly four years later, Wallace believes the debate sealed Biden’s victory. “I actually think Donald Trump lost the election because of his performance in that debate,” Wallace said during an appearance on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.” “He lost about four or five points and he never got them back.”
Wallace also claimed that Trump “interrupted Joe Biden or me 145 times in the space of 90 minutes,” a claim that appeared to position him as both aligning himself with Biden and countering Trump.
Wallace will not moderate Thursday’s debate, instead turning to Jake Tapper, a Wallace colleague to whom Trump has been repeatedly compared. Adolf Hitler And his position as president is,nightmare”
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