Dana Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent and a Bergen County native, will co-moderate Thursday's first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Bash, who attended Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, will be joined by fellow veteran CNN anchor Jake Tapper to take on the current and former presidents in a 90-minute segment airing at 9 p.m.
The debate, to be held at CNN studios in Atlanta, will be the first time the two candidates have appeared on a debate stage since 2020. It will be the first in U.S. history to feature a debate between a sitting president and a former president, after independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to qualify.
A self-described New Jersey native who shared fond memories of growing up in Bergen County with NorthJersey.com in 2022, Bash lived in Teaneck as a kindergartener before her family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, then moved back to New Jersey and lived in Montvale before returning to Washington, D.C., to attend George Washington University.
After interning with several networks while in college, Bash joined CNN, where she worked both in front of and behind the camera, serving as an associate producer for public affairs programming and then as a producer.
She got a taste of breaking journalism when she broke into the impeachment coverage of President Bill Clinton in 1992. She then moderated the second Democratic presidential primary debate, which lasted two days in Detroit in 2019, and also co-moderated the Republican primary debate earlier this year.
“Being part of the debate has been one of the coolest and most important experiences of my career. It means a lot,” she told NorthJersey.com in 2022.
Bash is the host of CNN's “Inside Politics” and co-host of “State of the Union” with Tapper. She has launched her own series, “Being…” and “Powerful Women in Washington,” and is the author of the book, “America's deadliest electionIt will be held on September 3rd.
Bash's father, Stuart Schwartz, is a former award-winning senior broadcast producer for ABC News. She reminisced to NorthJersey.com about her favorite places in Bergen County as a teenager: the Dairy Queen and the Ridge Diner on Chestnut Ridge Road. At 14, she worked at Van Riper's Farm in Woodcliff Lake, then at Friendly's bagel shop and the Great American Party Store, owned by her then-boyfriend's parents.
Thursday's debate will be the earliest televised general election debate, with Biden and Trump defying the format of the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has traditionally organized the televised event since 1960.
According to CNN, both candidates accepted CNN's invitation to host the debate in May and agreed to the network's format and set of rules.
Muted microphone
The showdown between the two front-runners ahead of the November general election will include two commercial breaks during which campaign staff will not be able to interact with the candidates. No pre-written notes or props will be allowed onstage, and the candidates will only be given pens, paper, and bottles of water, according to CNN.
The rules also include muting microphones, which will only be unmuted when it is a candidate's turn to speak. Unlike past debates, the debate will not have a live studio audience and candidates' podium positions will be determined by a coin toss, the network said in a news release.
According to CNN, Bash and Tapper will “take every step to ensure a civil and timely discussion.”
The debate will be broadcast live on CNN and streamed for free on CNN.com, and the network is also simulcasting it with other networks, with all major broadcast and cable news networks expected to do so.
The second presidential debate is scheduled to air on ABC on September 10th.
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