CNN anchor Kasie Hunt abruptly ended a live interview with Donald Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt after she repeatedly attacked the host’s coworkers and Thursday’s debate.
“President Trump is well prepared ahead of Thursday’s debate. Unlike Joe Biden, he doesn’t have to hide away and have his advisors tell him what to say. President Trump knows what he wants to say,” Leavitt told Hunt about the former president’s strategy.
Leavitt argued the CNN debate would be a “hostile environment” for Trump, saying that moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash have been “biased” in their coverage of the former president.
The spokeswoman said the ex-commander-in-chief is “knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network on CNN with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well-known over the past eight years in their biased coverage of him.”
Hunt pushed back saying that “if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing.”
CNN then played a number of statements from Trump on what he expects on the debate stage.
“Maybe I’m better off losing the debate. I’ll make sure he stays. I’ll lose the debate on purpose. Maybe I’ll do something like that,” Trump said on Real America’s Voice on 13 June.
“I assume [Biden’s] gonna be somebody that will be a worthy debater,” he added on the All-In podcast on Thursday.
Hunt told Leavitt that many Republicans have “set the bar very low, in terms of arguing that Biden is basically senile.”
“What do you expect from Joe Biden?” Hunt asked the Trump spokesperson, who immediately pivoted to criticizing Tapper.
“First of all, it would take someone five minutes to Google ‘Jake Tapper Donald Trump’…” Leavitt began before she was interrupted.
“Ma’am, I’m going to stop this interview if you continue to attack my colleagues,” Hunt told Leavitt. “I would like to talk about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who you work for.”
Leavitt began to say that she was “stating facts that your colleagues have said in the past,” before Hunt decided to end the interview.
“I’m sorry guys, we’re going to come back after the panel – Karoline, thank you very much for your time. You’re welcome to come back at any time,” Hunt said as CNN cut away from Leavitt.