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Debate preview? CNN anchor dumps Trump spox for calling attention to Jake Tapper’s bias

June 24, 2024 | | Print Article

A potential “preview” of Thursday’s presidential debate included peak corporate media censorship when a spokesperson for the former president was abruptly pulled from the air.

(Video Credit: CNN)

Throughout the 2024 presidential cycle, corporate media outlets have shown their commitment to the narrative over letting facts speak for themselves by cutting away or outright refusing to air remarks from former President Donald Trump.

After ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos deemed it “journalistic malpractice” to speak with the GOP leader live, CNN’s Kasie Hunt demonstrated the partisan lengths her own network was willing to take when she pulled the plug on an interview with Trump’s National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Monday during “CNN This Morning” the spokesperson’s barbs at planned debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash for biased coverage bristled the anchor into calling it quits after she herself demonstrated a slant for the incumbent.

Opening with a clip from 2020 where moderator Chris Wallace got on Trump’s case for fact-checking then-candidate Joe Biden, Hunt introduced Leavitt and asked her what the GOP leader planned to “do differently” during Thursday’s debate.

“Well, President Trump is well-prepared ahead of Thursday’s debate. Unlike Joe Biden, he doesn’t have to hide away and have his advisers tell him what to say,” she responded.

Contrasting the Republican’s public campaigning to the Democrat’s seeming sequestration, she went on, “And that’s why President Trump is knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network, on CNN, with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years in their biased coverage of him.”

Going on the defense, Hunt asserted, “So, I’ll just say, my colleagues, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, have acquitted themselves as professionals as they have covered campaigns and interviewed candidates from all sides of the aisle.”

“I’ll also say that if you talk to analysts of debates previous, that if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing,” she added before endeavoring to shift gears to the GOP’s take on Biden’s mental faculties.

Leavitt, however, continued her dig at the moderators. “Well, first of all, it would take someone five minutes to Google Jake Tapper–Donald Trump to see that Jake Tapper has consistently, frequently likened President Trump to Adolf Hitler.”

Interrupting the campaign press secretary as she made her point, Hunt insisted, “Ma’am, we’re going to stop this interview if you’re going to keep attacking my colleagues.”

When Leavitt pursued her point on the expectation of inherent bias from Tapper and Bash, the CNN anchor announced an end to the interview and, noticeably flustered, told viewers, “She is welcome to come back and speak about Donald Trump. And Donald Trump will have equal time to Joe Biden when they both join us now at next, early, later this week in Atlanta for this debate. Our thanks to Karoline.”

While Hunt turned to her panel to support her decision, social media backed the spokesperson’s point about CNN’s slant for the debate where rules decided that microphones would be controlled by the producers. Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec shared the end of the interview and remarked, “This is a preview of how CNN will act during the debate.”

Piggybacking on his post, The Federalist’s editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway stated as others sounded off, “CNN: our hosts can lie about Donald Trump being a Russian asset, or a thousand lies, but if you state what we’ve said, we will immediately remove you from the program. Democrat media at its finest.”

Of course, Hunt didn’t help her case any by taking to X herself to assert, “You come on my show, you respect my colleagues. Period. I don’t care what side of the aisle you stand on, as my track record clearly shows,” begging the questions, “How was pointing out a fact disrespectful?”

Kevin Haggerty
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