Why has the Trump camp hit out at CNN's Jake Tapper?

Donald Trump's camp has accused CNN anchor Jake Tapper - who is set to co-moderate the first general election presidential debate - of bias.

On Monday, June Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt appeared on the CNN morning show in a fiery interview with host Kasie Hunt where she berated Tapper.

Leavitt said "it would take someone five minutes to Google ‘Jake Tapper Donald Trump’ to see that Jake Tapper has consistently compared Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler”.

"That’s why President Trump is knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network, on CNN, with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years. And their biased coverage of him," she added.

It led Hunt to intervene and warn Leavitt: "Ma’am, I’m going to stop this interview if you keep attacking my colleagues. I would like to talk about Donald Trump and Joe Biden."

On social media, Trump's allies have criticised the incident which led CNN to put out a statement where they defended Tapper and Bash.

“Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are well respected veteran journalists who have covered politics for more than five decades combined,” the network said.

“They have extensive experience moderating major political debates, including CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate this cycle. There are no two people better equipped to co-moderate a substantial and fact-based discussion and we look forward to the debate on June 27 in Atlanta.

President Biden and former President Trump will participate in the first debate of the 2024 campaign as they take to the stage in Atlanta on Thursday (June 27).

Ahead of the debate, Trump is leading in the latest polls by just one point (50 per cent to 49 per cent), in a CBS poll released Sunday therefore it looks to be a high stakes debate for both nominees.

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