CNN anchor John Berman on Wednesday dismissed former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s suggestion that the terms of Thursday’s first presidential debate will give President Biden an unfair advantage over former President Donald Trump. President Trump.
In an interview with “CNN News Central,” Ramaswamy, now a staunch Trump supporter, said Biden had a number of advantages.
“I give [Trump] a lot of credit for holding this debate on the terms that were effectively defined by Biden,” Ramaswamy said of Trump, noting that the debate is “organized by CNN, in Atlanta, without a live audience.”
Those terms, he said, “would be equivalent to Joe Biden agreeing to do a debate hosted by Fox News in Alabama with 3,000 live viewers.”
Berman defended the terms, as did his colleagues – CNN journalists Jake Tapper and Dana Bash – who will moderate the debate and who have faced attacks in recent days from Trump’s allies, in an apparent effort to lower expectations ahead of the debate.
“Look, every aspect of this debate was agreed upon by the Trump campaign. And, you know, Jake and Dana are award-winning, ruthlessly fair journalists. They will do a fantastic job,” Berman said.
“The only Republican presidential candidate to lose Georgia in decades is Donald Trump. So Georgia is pretty friendly territory, or should be at least, for a Republican candidate,” Berman added.
Biden narrowly won Georgia in the 2020 election but beat Trump by 46 points in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and its suburbs.
Berman’s exchange with Ramaswamy came two days after CNN anchor Kasie Hunt interrupted an interview with Trump’s national press secretary in 2024 after she attacked Bash and Tapper — in a moment that intensified conservative criticism of the network.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
