Flashback: CNN operatives help certain Democrats in debates

At 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, CNN will host the first interparty presidential debate of the 2024 election, a debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who have not yet even been officially certified as their respective parties' nominees.

Their debates in 2020 were contentious, and Thursday promises to be no different. The network hosting the debate, CNN, will likely play a significant role as well, and if past presidential debates hosted by CNN are any indication, the network will likely run interference for Biden.

Here are three notable moments in which CNN operatives apparently assisted certain Democrat candidates:

Candy Crowley saves Obama from himself

On October 16, 2012, then-President Barack Obama joined current Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney for their second of three debates before the 2012 presidential election. CNN hosted the debate, and then-anchor Candy Crowley served as moderator.

A month prior to the debate, on the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks of 2001, Islamic terrorists stormed an American diplomatic compound and a nearby annex in Benghazi, Libya, and murdered four Americans: Ambassador Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service officer Sean Smith, and two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

Obama even then cheered on his teammate: 'Can you say that a little louder, Candy?'

In the days and weeks following, Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and others blamed the attack on a YouTube video, created by an American, that criticized Muslims. "Based on the best information we have to date," Rice said at the time on "Face the Nation," "... [the attack] began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where ... there was a violent protest outside our embassy sparked by this hateful video."

But the video had nothing to do with what turned out to have been another coordinated terrorist attack on Americans on September 11.

During the 2012 presidential debate, Crowley asked Obama about these events, and Obama insisted that within 24 hours, he called them "an act of terror." Romney then jumped in and asked Obama whether he had understood him correctly: "You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror, it was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you’re saying?"

"I want to make sure we get that for the record," Romney continued, "because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror."

Crowley then stepped out of her role as moderator and openly sided with Obama, claiming that Obama "did, in fact," call the Benghazi attacks an act of terror. Obama even then cheered on his teammate: "Can you say that a little louder, Candy?"

A few weeks later, Obama routed Romney and coasted to re-election, 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

Donna Brazile feeds Hillary Clinton debate questions

Donna Brazile, who has bounced back and forth between Democrat campaign work and newsroom punditry for decades, was a powerful figure in the 2016 political landscape. By that point, Brazile had been making regular appearances on CNN as a Democrat strategist for years.

She had also spent years in DNC leadership roles. So when DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz abruptly resigned her DNC position in July 2016 following the explosive news from Julian Assange's WikiLeaks that the DNC had rigged the Democrat primary for Hillary Clinton against Sen. Bernie Sanders, Brazile immediately stepped in as interim DNC chair, even as she continued her contributor position at CNN.

'My job was to make all our Democratic candidates look good.'

However, the WikiLeaks scandal became much more personal for Brazile in October 2016 when leaked emails revealed that earlier that year, Brazile had shared with the Clinton campaign at least two questions Hillary Clinton would likely receive during an upcoming primary debate co-hosted by CNN.

One question related to fallout from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Another related to the death penalty:

Here's one that worries me about HRC.

DEATH PENALTY

19 states and the District of Columbia have banned the death penalty. 31 states, including Ohio, still have the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1973, 156 people have been on death row and later set free. Since 1976, 1,414 people have been executed in the U.S. That’s 11% of Americans who were sentenced to die, but later exonerated and freed. Should Ohio and the 30 other states join the current list and abolish the death penalty?

Sent from Donna's I Pad. Follow me on twitter @donnabrazile

That year, Brazile also apparently promised in an email to a Clinton surrogate that she would "send a few more" questions along as well.

Brazile vehemently denied feeding the Clinton campaign any CNN questions, even waxing indignant and claiming that she was a victim of Christian persecution during a particularly heated exchange with then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who pressed Brazile about the accusations. Despite her caterwauling, Brazile resigned from CNN just a few days later.

Donald Trump ultimately prevailed in the 2016 presidential election, and by March 2017, Brazile publicly admitted that she had, in fact, given Clinton's team the debate questions.

"In October, a subsequent release of emails revealed that among the many things I did in my role as a Democratic operative and D.N.C. Vice Chair prior to assuming the interim D.N.C. Chair position was to share potential town hall topics with the Clinton campaign," she wrote in an article published by Time.

"My job was to make all our Democratic candidates look good, and I worked closely with both campaigns to make that happen," she continued. "But sending those emails was a mistake I will forever regret."

Chris Wallace blocks Trump from asking Biden about son Hunter

Chris Wallace has spent the past two years of his storied journalistic career floundering about at CNN. He joined the network in early 2022 and was supposed to be the star host of CNN+, the network's streaming service that was launched and canceled within just a month.

But in fall 2020, Wallace was still with Fox News, the network that had been his home for more than 15 years. In late September that year, Wallace moderated a debate between then-President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden. Trump was bombastic, repeatedly attempting to put Biden on the defensive about his son Hunter's involvement with Burisma and Ukraine.

'Mr. Vice President, you get the final word.'

Biden repeatedly stammered that his son had done nothing wrong and all the accusations against him had been "discredited," assertions that have since been proven false. The federal government even introduced Hunter Biden's infamous "laptop from hell" into evidence against him in his recent trial, noting that it had been authenticated as previously belonging to Hunter Biden.

Yet back in 2020, Joe Biden insisted that his son had been unfairly maligned, and Wallace seemed to help shield Biden from Trump's relentless attacks. "The mayor of Moscow's wife gave your son three and a half million dollars. What did he do to deserve it?" Trump asked Biden.

"It's not true. None of that is true," Biden stammered.

As Trump continued hammering Biden about the accusations about Hunter, Wallace repeatedly ordered Trump to back off. "Let him answer," Wallace interjected, though the cross-talk continued.

After another minute or so, Wallace told Biden: "Mr. Vice President, you get the final word." Biden then immediately replied, "Well, it's hard to get any word in with this clown."

Biden then pivoted, throwing out unspecified accusations about Trump's family members and attempting to talk about the American people, but Trump tried to steer the conversation back toward Hunter and Ukraine. At that point, Wallace ended the discussion.

When Trump asked rhetorically whether he could continue his line of questioning, Wallace raised his voice and replied, "The answer to the question is no." Wallace then demanded that the debate move on to another segment. Though he haphazardly requested that both participants stop interrupting one another, Wallace took particular aim at Trump. "I'm appealing to you, sir, to do that."

When Trump asked about Biden's behavior, Wallace retorted: "Well, frankly, you've been doing more interrupting."

Now, nearly four years later, Wallace views that debate as having sealed the election for Biden. "I actually think Donald Trump lost the presidency in that debate by his performance," Wallace said on an appearance on CNN's "The Source with Kaitlan Collins." "He dropped about four or five points. He never regained it."

Wallace also asserted that Trump "interrupted Joe Biden or me 145 times in 90 minutes," a statement that seems to situate himself with Biden and in opposition to Trump.

Wallace will not be hosting the debate on Thursday. Instead, the network has tapped for the role Wallace's colleague, Jake Tapper, who has repeatedly compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and characterized his presidency as a "nightmare."

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