As it prepares to hold the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, CNN will take center stage. America’s television screens will be illuminated with the much awaited matchup between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in late June. After exchanging rhetorical barbs from a distance, both contenders are now getting ready for a face-to-face meeting, which will pave the way for what seems to be a historic 2024.
On June 27, the two political heavyweights are scheduled to engage in a face-to-face discussion in CNN’s Atlanta studios, which is an in-studio format that does not allow for a live audience. This intimate and fierce exchange is anticipated.
According to Deadline, CNN confirmed Dana Bash and Jake Tapper as the moderators on Wednesday. The agreement follows Joe Biden’s audacious invitation to his opponent, stating that he was willing to debate “anywhere, any time, any place.” Trump confidently accepted the dare, claiming that Biden “can’t put two sentences together.”
CNN is in charge of the first debate, but there is still no word on how the other networks will be covered and whether or not a feed will be made available for simulcasting the event. The host of the ensuing debate on September 10th, ABC News, has already committed to disseminating its coverage.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal,” Biden said in a video message shared earlier Wednesday morning. “I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” Biden said alluding to Trump’s New York trial.
WATCH:
During the Republican primary debate in 2015, Tapper had his first significant role as a debate moderator. In March 2016, Tapper served as the moderator for a crucial Republican discussion that was among the final debates of the primary season. CNN’s lead political correspondent, Dana Bash, has covered presidential campaigns and Congress. A number of significant debates, including the 2020 Democratic primary debates, have been co-moderated by Bash. Bash gained notoriety for asking incisive questions during the Democratic primary, especially when it came to topics like healthcare and economic policy. Tapper and Bash have occasionally co-moderated arguments as well.
The 2020 presidential debates had three scheduled sessions, each presented by a different moderator four years ago. The first presidential debate was moderated by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace on September 29, 2020, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
The second debate was supposed to happen on October 15, 2020, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida, and Steve Scully of C-SPAN was supposed to moderate it. But following President Trump’s positive COVID-19 test results and ensuing arguments about holding the discussion virtually, it was called off. Rather, on the same night, the two candidates hosted different town hall meetings.
On October 22, 2020, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, Kristen Welker, co-anchor of Weekend Today and NBC News White House correspondent, moderated the last presidential debate.
The first debate in 2024 is scheduled to take place soon after Biden returns from a foreign trip to attend the G7 Summit, and it will likely coincide with the conclusion of Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan. September’s second debate would take place just before the majority of states’ early voting period began. A vice-presidential debate was also suggested by the Biden-Harris campaign for July, following the formal nominations of both parties’ ticket mates.
