But on Thursday, CNN will either receive criticism or praise: For the first time since 1960, one network will plan, produce and host a presidential general election debate. “This is a big responsibility that we take very seriously,” said CNN political director David Chalian.
“CNN is under pressure to make the debate a good one for voters and viewers,” said Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of the Hofstra University School of Communication.
The structure of the debate will be very different from what viewers are used to. For starters, the network has decided not to have a studio audience. Perhaps more importantly, CNN will turn off the candidates' microphones when it's not their turn to speak, preventing crosstalk that could ruin the show for viewers.
CNN set the terms of the debate, which the candidates agreed to when they participated. “The goal was to moderate a debate between two candidates and ensure that their differing visions were conveyed to the American people watching at home,” Chalian said.
Or, as former NBC News executive Mr. Lukasiewicz put it, “I think what they're trying to avoid is a disaster like the Chris Wallace debate that happened last election cycle.”
But even within the networks, there is skepticism that Trump will accept microphone restrictions.
“I suspect that Trump would keep talking even if his microphone was muted,” CNN host Jim Acosta said on television last week, an opinion echoed by his panelist, Republican strategist Jim Schultz.
“I think he's ignoring stop signs,” Schultz said. “… The more we try to shut him up, the more problems we're going to have, right?”
(Acosta noted that Biden's microphone could pick up Trump's voice, and vice versa, but even CNN's Chalian isn't sure whether viewers will be able to hear what Biden is saying.)
The Trump campaign has already signaled plans to attack the credibility of two veteran hosts, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. On Monday, host Casey Hunt abruptly ended an interview with the reporters after Trump press secretary Caroline Leavitt accused the journalists of bias. That prompted CNN to issue a statement defending their credibility, kicking off the week on a high note.
As former moderators know all too well, it's nearly impossible to avoid criticism, from both the public and campaigns. After moderating the 2020 vice presidential debate, USA Today reporter Susan Page was criticized for allowing the candidates to go over their allotted time and not asking enough follow-up questions.
“It's an honor and a privilege, and if you do your best, people are going to criticize,” Page said. “That's part of the job.”
Even before the first candidate took the stage, some were questioning whether the moderator would adequately confront Trump about his denial of the results of the 2020 election, a topic the former president will likely address.
The Declaration on American Democracy, a coalition of advocacy groups including Common Cause and the Sierra Club, sent a letter to CNN executives last weekend urging the network's hosts to ask questions about American democracy and correct misinformation about the election.
“It is also essential that debate moderators challenge any falsehoods about the US elections that may emerge during the debate,” the groups said in a letter to The Washington Post. “We urge you to seriously ask the candidates where they stand on threats facing US democracy and to encourage them to clearly state their positions on issues related to the integrity of US elections.”
Asked about the challenges of hosting an event featuring Trump, Chalian didn't go into detail, but he said a presidential debate is “not an ideal venue for live fact-checking.” Instead, he said, a moderator's goal is to facilitate dialogue between the two candidates.
But he added that “if egregious falsehoods are presented, Jake and Dana certainly have the ability to quickly correct the record and move on.”
CNN did not make Tapper or Bash available for an interview.
“These are serious people. They know the issues,” Page said. “They've covered politics and moderated debates, so I think they'll be great hires.”
CNN knows all too well how difficult it is to have a substantive, fact-based conversation with a former president.
In May 2023, President Trump made election denialist remarks and challenged CNN host Caitlin Collins at a town hall event, an action that infuriated network staff and led to the firing of the network's CEO, Chris Licht.
That night, Trump spoke to a crowd that was perceived to be heavily Republican, but this time it will be without an audience, which Lukasiewicz predicted will force the candidates to give more substantive answers and less theatricality.
“If no one is laughing, laugh lines are ineffective,” he said.
Either way, the debate will undoubtedly be a ratings boost for CNN, which has struggled to recapture the viewership it drew during the Trump administration's news boom. But CNN has agreed to let other networks carry the debate, meaning Thursday's potentially huge viewership — the 73.1 million who tuned in to watch the first debate of 2020 — will be split among networks including NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News and MSNBC.
It's a concession to the old ways: Since 1987, every presidential and vice presidential debate has been hosted and run by the nonprofit Commission on Presidential Debates, which shares a broadcast feed with all the news networks. This year, both sides decided to circumvent that process and schedule the debates directly with the media companies.
ABC News will host the second Biden-Trump debate in September. The Biden campaign has accepted an invitation to participate in a vice presidential debate on CBS, and the Trump campaign has agreed to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News, but neither event has yet been confirmed.
Lukasiewicz, who covered the debate for NBC, said that if the CNN debate is successful, it could serve as a model for future debates.
He said the networks will have more freedom to create compelling programming than the traditionally constrained Commission on Presidential Debates, and he predicted that CNN's hosts, in particular, will have more leeway to counter the candidates than past debate hosts.
Before the CNN-ABC debate was announced last month, many were skeptical that Biden and Trump would debate at all.
“I'm just so happy that this happened, no matter what its flaws are, no matter what people say afterwards,” Page said.
As for advice for her CNN co-host, she had just two things to say: “Good luck.”
“They're going to do their best,” she said. “That's what we're asking for.”
