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CNN presidential debate moderators have a long history of shooting down Trump — including in comparison to Hitler

Posted on by Vaseline

The two CNN presenters who will host the first presidential debate of 2024 on Thursday previously called Donald Trump’s first term a “national nightmare” and compared his language to that of Adolf Hitler.

“State of the Union” hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper — who have a long history of criticizing the former president and current presidential candidate — will be responsible for asking questions of both Trump and President Biden on the CNN forum that takes place at 9 p.m. in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tapper, the network’s lead anchor in Washington, has in the past called the 45th president a “desperate electoral loser,” suggested Trump would spread “Russian propaganda” — and has said that if re-elected, the former president will trying to “kill democracy”.

“He tried to kill democracy once, and he will try again,” Tapper said on air in December 2021. “But this time with a little help from his friends.”

CNN stars Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderate the first presidential debate of 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday. Getty Images

Tapper has also compared Trump’s language about “poisoning the blood of our country” to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” manifesto, and suggested in the aftermath of the January 6 riots that Trump had provoked a “terrorist attack” on America.

“If you were to open a copy of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,’ you would see the Nazi leader describing the mixing of non-Germans with Germans as poisoning. The Jew, Hitler wrote, ‘poisons the blood of others’… Donald Trump’s language directly reflects this,” Tapper said in December 2023.

Tapper has called Trump’s first term a “national nightmare.” Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery

Bash, who is also CNN’s host of “Inside Politics,” has also made sharp comments about Trump.

She has argued that the US Supreme Court has decided “unfortunately for America” ​​to keep Trump on the ballot in Colorado and has suggested that the former president incited “war” at home during his first term.

Dana Bash speaks before the first of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN on July 30, 2019 in Detroit. AP

“Maybe he hasn’t started new wars abroad, but he has completely inflamed one war after another and even, I would say, war at home,” Bash said in January 2021 in response to Trump’s farewell video in the White House.

Bash also criticized the first 2020 presidential debate between Trump and Biden for being a “st-show” because of the former president.

She argued that the debate was a “bad reality TV show” and that Trump “went too far” with his aggression during the contest.

Tapper called the debate a “disgrace” in the same segment and said Trump was “rude” and “disrespected by any form of decency.”

Tapper and Bash talk to audience members before the start of CNN’s Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10. AP

CNN did not respond to a Post message about their moderator selection for Thursday’s showdown.

The former president’s campaign has already called out the CNN hosts for their past comments about Trump, and Rep. Karoline Leavitt was abruptly interrupted Monday morning for suggesting the hosts would provide him with a “hostile environment” during the debate.

Before the moderators were announced, Trump agreed to the CNN debate after calling on Biden to join him in abandoning the historic Commission on Presidential Debates in favor of earlier forums in the election cycle.

Biden suggested that the network host the first debate and also set additional rules — including turning off a candidate’s microphone while his opponent is speaking.

Donald Trump gestures during a campaign event in Philadelphia on June 22. REUTERS

A source close to the Republican National Committee told The Post that Trump agreeing to the CNN debate before the moderator selection was announced could come back to haunt him.

“While a month or two ago it seemed incredibly risky for the president to challenge the former president to a debate, it now appears that Biden has masterfully misled Trump, who fell into the trap and accepted the debate – in the hope that he could pillory Biden — without doing the due diligence that campaigns always do, including moderator selection,” the source said.

Leavitt argued that Trump will win Thursday’s debate despite the selection of the moderator.

“CNN cutting my microphone because I brought up a debate moderator’s history of anti-Trump lies only proves our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly in Thursday’s debate,” Leavitt said in a statement to The Post. Yet President Trump is still willing to take this 3-1 fight to deliver his winning message to the American people, and he will win.”

Trump and Biden will also face off on September 10 for a second debate hosted by ABC News.