Who is Dana Bash and where did she go to college? Is she Republican or Democrat?

Dana Bash will moderate Thursday night’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Jake Tapper, another well-known CNN anchor, will also moderate the event.

Follow the Trump - Biden debate live on AS.com.

This will be the first debate of the 2024 presidential cycle, with three more (two presidential and one vice presidential) scheduled for September and October. However, the campaigns complained that the debates would happen after some states had mailed out ballots, which could mean people casting their vote before having a chance to hear from the candidates simultaneously. If the debate this week is anything like those held in 2020, it may not be a productive vehicle for voters to learn more about the favored policies of each candidate. However, maybe with the new rules and moderation from the CNN duo, the event will go a bit smoother than it did nearly four years ago.

As a journalist, Bash needs to appear neutral regarding her political views. The Trump campaign, however, has accused Bash of being a Democrat and biased against him. This message was communicated to one of Bash and Tapper’s colleagues by a campaign spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, on Kasie Hunt’s “This Morning.”

Dana Bash’s education and professional origins

Bash has had a long career at CNN, beginning in 1993 when she graduated from George Washington University with a degree in political communication. Her first job at the news organization was as a library assistant for the Washington DC Bureau. Before stepping into a role in front of the camera, Bash worked as an editor and producer on CNN programs like “Inside Politics with Wolf Blitzer” and the now-canceled “Evans & Novak.”

She began commentating in the early 2000s, securing herself a slot in CNN’s election coverage in most major elections since 2000. She earned a Peabody Award in 2008 for her election coverage, documented in “America Votes 2008.” As she gained more experience, Bash was tapped to take on greater responsibilities at the network, becoming chief political correspondent in August 2015, just as the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was underway.

Since 2021, Bash has hosted “State of the Union” alongside Jake Tapper, and since 2023, she has hosted “Inside Politics,” replacing John King. Earlier this year, she announced that she would release a book on the presidential election of 1872, titled “America’s Deadliest Election.”

How many debates has Dana Bash moderated?

After being promoted, Bash moderated the Republican presidential primary held the following month in September 2015 and would moderate five additional debates before that election cycle ended. In 2020, Bash was tapped to moderate two presidential debates alongside Jake Tapper and their former colleague Don Lemon. The first was an early Democratic presidential debate split over two nights because of the nearly two dozen candidates invited to participate. Bash, Tapper, and Ilia Calderón also hosted the last Democratic debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders after all the other candidates had suspended their campaigns to consolidate support behind then-candidate Biden.

So far this year, Bash has moderated one debate between Republican hopefuls vying for the White House or attempting to raise their national profile.