CNN’s Dana Bash admits she prepped ‘much more’ for how Trump would act during first debate than for Biden

CNN host Dana Bash told the co-hosts of “The View” on Monday that she and her co-moderator Jake Tapper prepped much more for how former President Trump would act during their debate in June than they did for President Biden. 

“The View” co-host Ana Navarro asked Bash if anything surprised her anymore after the president ended up dropping out, noting that Bash has been at the “center” of the election cycle because of her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and viral clash with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate.

“I still sort of can’t believe that we are where we are for so many reasons. I mean, the debate, if you would have told me beforehand when we were prepping, and the prep is very intense, that we would have ended up without Joe Biden in the race, I would have told you you’d lost your mind. I never would have believed that. We were prepping much more on how Donald Trump was going to act and react, and sort of tried to game that out, than on the Joe Biden side of things,” Bash responded.

Biden’s halting, frail showing at the CNN debate led directly to his departure in July, following weeks of pressure from Democrats.

MEDIA CALLS FOR BIDEN TO WITHDRAW FROM 2024 RACE AFTER ‘DISASTER’ CNN DEBATE PERFORMANCE: ‘IT’S OVER’

Trump and Harris faced off in early September for a debate moderated by ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis. 

Davis and Muir fact-checked Trump several times during the debate and failed to fact-check the vice president at all. 

Davis admitted in a post-debate interview that her fact-checking of Trump was influenced by the CNN debate.

“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis told the Los Angeles Times.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

Bash and Tapper did not provide live fact-checks during the first debate.

Harris falsely claimed during the ABC debate that there were no active duty U.S. troops in war zones or combat zones, but was not fact-checked. 

“There is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century,” Harris claimed during the debate.

Muir similarly dismissed any criticism of the moderators following their debate and said it was just “noise.”

“All of the noise that you hear afterward about you know, ‘Which candidate won the debate, did the moderators win or lose?’” Muir told the audience on ABC’s “Live With Kelly and Mark.” “That’s just noise. You all know that. The most important thing to remember is you all have the power.”

Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark and David Rutz contributed to this report.