CNN’s Jake Tapper And Dana Bash Will Moderate June Presidential Debate

Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the June 27 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the network said.

Both candidates said today that they had agreed to participate in the event, which will take place at CNN’s studios in Atlanta.

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Tapper and Bash were to co-moderate a Republican primary debate this year in New Hampshire, but that was canceled after Nikki Haley and Donald Trump declined to participate, leaving just Ron DeSantis.

CNN has not yet said whether other networks will be offered a feed to simulcast the event. ABC News, which is hosting the second debate on Sept. 10, said that it would provide its coverage for other networks to broadcast and stream. Puck first reported the news on the choice of moderators, about a minute before the network announced it.

This will be the first time that Tapper or Bash has moderated a general election debate. The last CNN figure to do so was Anderson Cooper, who co-moderated one of the 2016 debates with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz. That was also the last time that there were co-moderators of the event.

The prized gig of moderating a general election debate promises news figures one of the largest audiences they will have in their careers, but it also comes with extraordinary pitfalls. Trump, for one, has taken to criticize moderators before and after the events. Biden’s campaign called for the host network to avoid personalities who were a “ringer” or partisan. Just as important as the choice of questions will be how the moderators keep things under control, a difficult task given Trump’s presence and the polarized nature of politics this cycle.

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