President Joe Biden’s aides are reportedly furious that CNN won’t fact-check former President Donald Trump during Thursday night’s debate.
CNN political director David Chalian confirmed to the New York Times that the network will not live fact-check Trump while he debates Biden in the first televised presidential debate this election cycle.
However, he said that hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will be allowed to make “egregious” misstatements from either candidate “that needs to be checked or the record needs to be made clear.”
Chalian insisted, though, that Bash and Tapper will not be there to “participate in this debate.”
In response, the president’s aides claim that by not fact-checking Trump, the network has “exemplified a primary failing of the press corps for several years now.”
“Democrats and Biden allies believe there is a duty to try — and to not be fixated on upholding the appearance of impartiality when one side is peddling lies more than another,” Politico’s West Wing wrote.
The outlet noted that since his comments, Chalian has received “anxious calls and texts” from Biden officials trying “to figure out what exactly his comments portended for Thursday night.”
“Democrats and Biden allies believe there is a duty to try — and to not be fixated on upholding the appearance of impartiality when one side is peddling lies more than another,” West Wing wrote.
The debate will also be an opportunity for CNN to make a comeback after losing millions of viewers and its credibility through the years.
Former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno said the debate between the two presidential candidates will be a big night for the left-leaning network to “reassert itself.”
“It has to show that it led a revolution in the news before and can do it again,” Sesno added.
According to data from the Nielsen company, CNN is averaging only 525,000 viewers. In comparison, Fox News has received roughly 2.14 million viewers this month.