CNN moderator ends interview after Trump’s press secretary attacked CNN debate moderators

CNN this morning Moderator Kasie Hunt canceled an interview with a Trump campaign spokesman who seemed determined to use the live segment to disparage the moderators of this week’s presidential debate, CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

“Ma’am, I will terminate this interview if you continue to attack my colleagues,” Hunt interrupted Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “I want to talk about Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”

The interview on Monday morning had barely begun when Leavitt accused Tapper and Bash of bias, saying, “You would have to spend five minutes Googling ‘Jake Tapper Donald Trump’ to see that Jake Tapper has repeatedly compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.”

“That’s why President Trump is deliberately putting himself in a hostile environment on this very network, on CNN, with debate moderators who have made their opinions of him very clear over the last eight years. And their biased coverage of him,” said Leavitt, the national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 campaign.

President Biden and former President Trump will take the stage in Atlanta on Thursday for the first debate of the 2024 campaign — and one of the earliest presidential debates ever. After months of attacking Biden as a clueless old man unfit for his job, Trump and his supporters have recently changed course, suggesting that Biden could deliver a strong debate performance.

“He beat Paul Ryan,” Trump said in a podcast interview last week, referring to the 2012 vice presidential debate. “I don’t underestimate him. I expect he’ll be a worthy debater.”

“I just want to say that my colleagues Jake Tapper and Dana Bash have proven themselves to be professionals, having covered campaigns and interviewed candidates from all camps,” Hunt said. “I also want to say that when you talk to analysts of previous debates, attacking the moderators is usually where you lose.”

Later Monday, Hunt posted a message on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, saying: “When you come on my show, you respect my colleagues. Period. I don’t care which side you’re on, as my track record clearly shows.”

Leavitt said in her own post on X: “You cut my mic because I brought up the moderator’s history of lying against Trump. That solidified our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly on Thursday.”

“So Jake Tapper can go on the air and spread as many lies as he wants. But when I just wanted to repeat them (which is relevant because he is the moderator of Thursday’s debate), they interrupted me and kicked me out,” Leavitt later said in a podcast interview with Steve Bannon. “It was really shocking what happened this morning.”

Leavitt also shared a post with clips from Tapper and Bash, who correctly noted that some of Trump’s language in recent campaign appearances and interviews is reminiscent of the language of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. Most notable is Trump’s recent comment that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”