The first Democratic primetime debate will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas casino hotel, on Tuesday, October 13 at 8:30 p.m. EST. Noticeably absent from the lineup though was The Lead’s Jake Tapper. How To Watch The Democratic Debate Online: Where To Livestream The CNN …
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Why CNN would put anyone besides Tapper in the big chair when they’ve got him in the stable is something of a mystery.
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol tweeted in response to Cooper’s dismissal that “facts are stubborn things”. I am a CNN political commentator and a frequent guest on Anderson Cooper’s show, sometimes in person, sometimes via satellite from the center of the universe otherwise known as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. But I’ll leave that to network chiefs and journalistic ethics arbiters, of which I am neither.
But come to think of it, that pairing may have at least something to do with the choice.
He first joked about the last time he had been there, when he hosted one of the presidential debates there in 2008. That proves you are not afraid to criticize your own people. As Tom Tillison at Bizpac Review notes, the GOP show had Hugh Hewitt to “drag the conversation to the right”.
CNN, the sponsor of Tuesday’s debate among Democratic presidential candidates, has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid being sullied with the stigma of “liberal bias”. And nobody is expecting sparks to fly, with Rush Limbaugh calling it “a dryball”.
“Obviously, we have instructed our moderators to goad the Democrats into attacking each other as personally as possible”, Zucker told reporters at CNN headquarters. “There’s no better way for me or for them to prepare”. Who do progressives look up to in television or radio journalism these days? “They want to talk about the issues and I want to give them an opportunity to do that”. Who will beat up the candidates over being insufficiently socialist?
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The candidates that will be taking part in the debate include Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton, plus Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Lincoln Chafee and Martin O’Malley will be appearing. Speaking on behalf of the network when they hosted the second Republican debate, “We are offering this as a preview”.
