The two CNN anchors who will be moderating Thursday's presidential candidates' debate have a rocky history with former President Donald Trump, having suggested the presumptive GOP nominee will try to "kill democracy" if reelected.
Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, who host CNN's "State of the Union," will be posing questions to both Trump and President Joe Biden at the network's forum beginning at 9 p.m. ET in Atlanta.
Tapper has derided Trump as a "desperate electoral loser" in the past and suggested the 45th president spread "Russian propaganda."
"He did try to kill democracy once, and he's going to try to do it again," Tapper said on air in December 2021. "But this time with a little help from his friends."
In December, Tapper also said that Trump's language about migrants "poisoning the blood of our country" was similar to that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf."
"If you were to open up a copy of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' you would find the Nazi leader describing the mixing of non-Germans with Germans as poisoning," Tapper said. "The Jew, Hitler wrote, 'poisons the blood of others' … Donald Trump's language mirrors this directly."
Bash has taken swipes at the former president as well, saying "unfortunately for America" the Supreme Court ruled that Trump must remain on the Colorado ballot. The "Inside Politics" host also suggested that Trump incited "war" within the U.S. during his first term.
"Maybe he didn't start any new wars abroad, but he completely incited battle after battle and even, I would say, war domestically," Bash tweeted in January 2021 in response to Trump's White House farewell video.
Tapper called the first Trump-Biden 2020 presidential debate a "disgrace" and said Trump was "rude" and "didn't abide by any standards of decorum," while Bash called it a "s*** show" because of the former president.
In a statement to Newsmax, CNN said there are "no two people better equipped" than Tapper and Bash to serve as debate moderators.
"Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are well respected veteran journalists who have covered politics for more than five decades combined," the network said. "They have extensive experience moderating major political debates, including CNN's Republican Presidential Primary Debate this cycle.
"There are no two people better equipped to co-moderate a substantial and fact-based discussion and we look forward to the debate on June 27 in Atlanta."
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, was abruptly cut off during a live interview with CNN's Kasie Hunt on Monday morning for suggesting Bash and Tapper would create a "hostile environment" for Trump during the debate.
"CNN cutting off my microphone for bringing up a debate moderator's history of anti-Trump lies just proves our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly in Thursday's debate," Leavitt said in a statement to the New York Post. "Yet President Trump is still willing to go into this 3-1 fight to bring his winning message to the American people, and he will win."
Trump and Biden are set to square off for a second time on Sept. 10 for a debate hosted by ABC News.