Donald Trump has trashed CNN for years and he and his allies ramped up attacks against the network in the days leading up to his Thursday debate against Joe Biden.
But come Friday morning, the former president and his campaign had a change of heart.
“I love CNN,” read a subject line on a fundraiser email from his campaign.
Nothing like a disastrous performance by the sitting president for Trump and his team to come around to CNN and its debate moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
CNN determined ahead of time that Tapper and Bash would be questioners, not umpires. They didn’t follow up questions — except to repeat those that weren’t answered — and left it to the politicians to try and fact-check. Each called the other a liar.
CBS’ Gayle King said later that the lack of fact-checking benefited Trump because he was able to seem more in control with his answers. “If you don’t know the facts, you’d think he was making a lot of sense,” she said.
Heading in to the debate, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said that she did not envy the position in which Tapper and Bash were placed.
“The moderators at CNN have an impossible job,” she said, “and they are under nuclear hot scrutiny.”
The first debate between Trump and Biden in 2020 was seen by 73 million viewers, while the second had 63 million. Those were in the fall, when television viewership was generally up.
Following the debate, The Washington Post and The New York Times had nearly identical lead headlines. The Post: “Biden Struggles, Trump Deflects Questions.” The Times: “Biden Struggles as Trump Deflects Questions During Contentious Debate.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
