CNN anchor Kasie Hunt stopped an interview with a top spokesperson for former President Trump’s campaign Monday after she repeatedly attacked two CNN anchors who are slated to host this week’s presidential debate.
Hunt asked Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt what Trump “is gonna to do differently on the debate stage this time,” drawing reference to his 2020 clashes with President Biden.
“President Trump knows what he wants to say, and he’s going to relay his vision to the American people to make this country strong, safe, secure and wealthy again. He’s been doing that across this great nation to all corners of this country,” Leavitt said.
“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 and their biased coverage of him.”
Hunt pushed back on Leavitt’s comments about CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who will host the Thursday debate hosted by the network in Atlanta.
“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,” Hunt said. “I’ll also say that if you talk to analysts of debates, previous, that if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing.”
Hunt then asked Leavitt what Trump’s team expects from Biden on the debate stage, but the former president’s spokesperson again attacked Tapper.
“Well, first of all, it takes about five minutes to Google ‘Jake Tapper, Donald Trump’ to see that Jake Tapper has …” Leavitt said before Hunt cut her off again, warning her “Ma’am, we’re going to stop this interview if you’re going to keep attacking my colleagues.”
As Leavitt continued, Hunt instructed the CNN control room to cut the video feed of Leavitt and pivoting back to a panel discussion on the upcoming debate.
“Karoline, thanks very much for your time. You are welcome to come back at any point,” Hunt said. “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.”
Monday’s back-and-forth was first highlighted by Mediaite.
Leavitt appeared hours later on “War Room,” a podcast and live stream show hosted by Steven Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and continued to attack Tapper.
“They don’t want spokespeople and defenders of the president to go on that same network and bring them up [alleged instances of bias by the moderators against Trump],” she told Bannon, who himself claimed Thursday’s debate would be “totally 100 percent rigged.”
The network issued a statement defending Bash and Tapper on Monday afternoon.
“Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are well respected veteran journalists who have covered politics for more than five decades combined,” a CNN spokesperson told The Hill. “They have extensive experience moderating major political debates, including CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate this cycle. There are no two people better equipped to co-moderate a substantial and fact-based discussion and we look forward to the debate on June 27 in Atlanta. ”
Updated at 2 p.m. ET