Just hours after Donald Trump and Joe Biden agreed to debate each other on CNN in June, the cable news network announced that the debate will be moderated by its anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
The debate will take place in Atlanta at 9 p.m. on June 27, and will air live on CNN. It will be the first of at least two agreed upon presidential debates, with the second slated to be hosted by ABC on Sept. 10.
Both Tapper and Bash have experience as debate moderators together, having hosted the GOP presidential primary debate in Iowa in January—a fiery spectacle that Trump declined to attend as he had a stranglehold on his party’s nomination.
Tapper hosts The Lead on CNN on during the week and has become known for his pointed questioning of subjects, particularly politicians. He also hosts CNN’s popular public affairs show, State of the Union, which airs on Sundays. Bash hosts CNN’s Inside Politics and regularly contributes elsewhere on the network.
Both in office and out, Trump has regularly gone nuclear on CNN for any negative story published about him. Railing against CNN journalists, including Bash and Tapper themselves, has become part of Trump’s modus operandi, and he’s sure to do more of the same when he comes face to face with them in six weeks.
Trump won’t be able to feed off a crowd’s energy during June’s debate, however, as CNN announced the event will be hosted without a crowd.
Having any debates at all appears to be a positive for the 2024 campaign, however, after both Biden and Trump previously indicated they would not participate in the Commission on Presidential Debates’ proposed schedule.
The June debate will be the first-ever meeting on stage between Biden and Trump, as the COVID-19 pandemic soured any plans of an in-person debate in the buildup to the 2020 election.
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