Trump Campaign’s List of Proposed Debate Moderators Includes a Ton of Fox News Plus… David Muir and Hoda Kotb
Saul Loeb, Win McNamee, Getty Images
The Trump campaign has released a list of proposed debate moderators — drafted by Rudy Giuliani — sent to the Commission on Presidential Debates that also asked to move the last presidential debate up to the first week in September.
The former New York City mayor and President Donald Trump’s personal attorney penned the request in a letter obtained by Axios — citing an expected rise in early voting as a reason to move the debate forward.
Guiliani noted that 16 states will have already began voting by the time of the first presidential debate, which is set for September 29. He also pointed out that by October 22, the time of the final debate, 34 states will have started voting.
“For a nation already deprived of a traditional campaign schedule because of the Covid-19 global pandemic, it makes no sense to also deprive so many Americans of the opportunity to see and hear the two competing visions of our country’s future before millions of votes have been cast,” he wrote, suggesting adding an additional debate in early September.
His letter included a list of proposed debate moderators with a raft of obvious choices — like Trump-boosting New York Post writer Michael Goodwin — and much of the Fox News lineup.
There were some surprising picks, such as NBC’s Hoda Kotb, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell, ABC’s David Muir and Tom Llamas.
The Fox News selection included Fox News anchors Bret Baier, Shannon Bream, Harris Faulkner, and Bill Hemmer, and Fox Business hosts Maria Bartiromo, Charles Payne and Dagen McDowell. There were also some less well-known Fox personalities, like Rachel Campos-Duffy.
The list notably excludes Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who held a fiery interview with Trump last month.
Also missing from the list are any hosts from CNN, and there’s just one personality from MSNBC: Hugh Hewitt.
See the full list, courtesy of Axios, below.
Bret Baier, Gerry Baker, Maria Bartiromo, Shannon Bream, David Brody, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Kevin Cirilli, Larry Elder, Saagar Enjeti, Harris Faulkner, Major Garrett, Michael Goodwin, Ambrosio Hernandez, Joe Kernen, Hoda Kotb, Susan Li, Bill Hemmer, Hugh Hewitt, Tom Llamas, Dagen McDowell, David Muir, Norah O’Donnell, Charles Payne, Rick Santelli.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
