CNN’s Jake Tapper Roasts Fox As He Pushes Trump To Show Up For Debate: ‘Not Going To Face Any Tough Questions’ From Baier

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pushed for former President Donald Trump to show up for CNN’s debate, and casually torpedoed the Fox News town hall airing opposite it as a softball session.

Fox News announced Tuesday that anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will moderate a town hall with Trump the same night CNN is hosting a GOP primary debate between former Amb. Nikki Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on January 10 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

On Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper pushed for Trump to show up, telling analysts Karen Finney and Kristen Soltis Anderson “He should be there, shouldn’t he?” and offering several reasons why.

Those included a shot at Baier and MacCallum, whom Tapper said would not cause Trump to “face any tough questions”:

TAPPER: Do you think it still, at this point, is a good strategy for Donald Trump to skip these debates? I mean, now, this is the first one that’s going to be this small. I can understand he’s not going to like one where there’s like 30 people, but DeSantis and Haley are both credible candidates, he should be there. Shouldn’t he?

ANDERSON: So we’re in football playoff season right now and that’s the way I used to hear voters talk about this a couple of months ago that it was a kind of OK for Donald Trump to sit out the quarterfinals, maybe even the semi finals. But we’ve reached the final round, Iowa was — less than two weeks away. And so, if it was ever going to hurt Donald Trump missing this debate on the 10th, may be the one. But I’m still skeptical that him doing anything but playing a very safe strategy, just get through Iowa, have the blowout that he’s expecting, that’s probably the safer strategy. But if it was ever going to hurt him, this is when it would hurt him.

FINNEY: You know what, if you’re Donald Trump, you have — there’s no reason to show up. Bad for CNN and the American public, although he’s going to be on Fox. But you know, from his perspective, his campaign has done so much also behind the scenes to make sure that they can shore up this nomination by March. You know, changing the rules in California, some of the things they’re doing with the RNC. Again, he doesn’t have to show up, A, because he’s got the support and the numbers, B, they’re working behind the scenes to rig, to use his term, the rules. So, why show up when you can just keep doing what you’re doing?

TAPPER: I mean, there’s lots of — there’s lots of answers I could give you.

FINNEY: Yes.

TAPPER: One is, it shows respect for the American people and Republican voters, right? I mean, like, I’m willing to take some tough questions. He’s not going to face any tough questions that go on before Fox.

FINNEY: No.

TAPPER: I mean, you know?

FINNEY: I mean, yes, I agree with you. I just think Trump is running more like we ran — we saw him in 2016 with the benefit of the relationships he has, again, with the GOP, state party chairs and the RNC. He’s trying to run as an insurgent. And being on the stage, I agree with you that it would be the right thing to do. I —

TAPPER: I don’t just mean the right thing. But you know, this just reminds me of something. I’m not comparing Trump and Obama. So everybody put down your laptops, put down your iPhones, but I do remember in 2012, I was a White House correspondent. And Obama went like a year or so only really doing generally soft interviews, friendly interviews.

And that first debate with Romney, he wished he was bad, because he hadn’t been with anybody really challenging him. Now, I don’t know what it’s going to happen when and if Biden and Trump actually ever face off, but I don’t think Trump’s going to be in fighting shape.

Baier’s Trump interview in June received warm praise for challenging the former president on election denialism among some mixed reviews.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.