Former President Donald Trump has urged CNN‘s Dana Bash to do the country a “great service” in her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz.
Harris and Walz, the Democratic nominees for president and vice president, are participating in their first joint sit-down interview with Bash, set to air Thursday night on CNN, following sustained criticism from Trump and his allies over a lack of major interviews. Harris has also been criticized for deciding to be interviewed alongside Walz.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday morning, Trump praised Bash for being “fair” while moderating his June 27 debate with President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the presidential race less than a month later. He also suggested that Bash “has a chance at greatness” by interviewing Harris and Walz.
While making the remarks, Trump referred to his Democratic opponents by the nicknames “Comrade Kamala” and “Tampon Tim”—references to a false claim that Harris is a Communist and a false claim that Walz, as the governor of Minnesota, required that tampons be placed in boy’s school bathrooms.
“Dana Bash of CNN has a chance at greatness today,” Trump wrote. “If she gave a fair but tough interview of Comrade Kamala Harris, she will expose her as being totally inept and ill suited for the job of President, much as I exposed Crooked Joe Biden during our now famous Debate. How cool would that be for Dana and CNN???”
“Also, the interview should not have Tampon Tim present to help with the inevitable Kamala stumbles, and under no circumstances should the transcript be allowed to be changed in any way, shape, or form,” he added. “Dana and Jake [Tapper] were fair, but firm, in my CNN Debate with Crooked Joe.”
Former President Donald Trump (L) and CNN’s Dana Bash (R). Trump urged Bash to “expose” Vice President Kamala Harris in her interview with Harris and running mate Tim Walz.
Rebecca Noble; Mario Tama
Trump went on to say that the interview was “a chance for Dana Bash to reach REAL stardom, while at the same time doing a great service to our now failing Country,” before wishing Bash “good luck” and urging her to “do the right thing.”
Newsweek reached out to CNN for comment via email on Thursday.
Several hours after Trump’s post, Bash shared an image from the interview on X, formerly Twitter, while announcing that it had been completed on Thursday afternoon and would air in full at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.
A short time later, Bash appeared on CNN to briefly discuss the “wide-ranging” interview before showing a clip of Harris saying that her “values haven’t changed” in response to a question about policy positions changing since her short-lived campaign for president in 2020.
The Trump campaign previously complained that the interview being pre-taped instead of airing live would allow “handlers [to] have time to play damage control” for Harris.
