As Dana Bash and Jake Tapper prepare to host the CNN presidential debate Thursday, many have lobbied harsh criticism against them. However, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has come to their defense.

During Morning Joe Thursday, the longtime MSNBC host — alongside co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist — discussed the 90-minute debate, while claiming that critics should have no fear about the job Bash and Tapper will do.

“I don’t think that Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are planning to be hostile. I think they want a fair debate,” Brzezinski said.

“Well, they’ll be tough to both sides,” replied Joe Scarborough.

Brzezinski replied by stating that the “hostility” is most like to come from former President Donald Trump toward the moderators, and not the other way around.

“I’m sure that they will be elegant and fair and try their best to ask Donald Trump — and this is his worst nightmare — basic questions,” she added.

“I think those two tonight are going to have the ability to not only ask the tough, fair question but more importantly the follow-up that has to be asked,” Scarborough said.

Geist went as far as to argue that Dana Bash and Jake Tapper are supremely qualified for the position.

“Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are two of the best we have in our business,” he shared before opining on the debate format. “It’s the kind of debate you typically see — and I say this as a compliment, as a good thing on a local level — on your local news affiliate, where the candidates come into the studio. They sit there with no crowd. It’s not a rally, it’s not a rah-rah event, and they just have to answer the questions … It’s going to be fascinating to watch that just sort of the mechanical dynamic of how this plays out tonight.”

Fox News has announced that Greg Gutfeld will host his popular late-night program from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next month.

Gutfeld! will be on location from Monday, July 15th through Thursday, July 18th in Milwaukee, hosting his show outside Fiserv Forum in front of a live audience alongside Kat Timpf and various other panelists.

Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum are slated to host special primetime coverage of the convention as part of Fox News’ Democracy 24: Republican National Convention coverage. When their special primetime coverage concludes, Gutfeld will host his program at 11 PM ET.

To this point in 2024, Gutfeld! is the highest-rated program in cable news and is in the midst of its most-watched year in program history, as it averages more than 2.2 million viewers.

CNN is scheduled to host the first 2024 presidential debate Thursday night, and CEO Mark Thompson wanted to return debates to a more simplistic format.

“I wanted a return to a very simple, classical format,” Thompson told The New York Times while mentioning the famous 1960 televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon as inspiration for the network’s decisions on rules and format for the high-profile event.

During Thursday’s debate between former President Donald Trump (R) and President Joe Biden (D), the microphones of the non-answerer will be muted. No live audience will be in attendance. CNN is also bucking decades of precedent by featuring commercial breaks during the 90-minute debate. During those breaks, candidates will not be able to consult with their campaign staff.

Many conservatives have questioned why Trump would agree to a debate with such rules, and have also questioned why he would welcome a debate on a network like CNN. Charges of political bias have been lobbied against the network since his rise to the presidency in 2016.

Thompson said that while he’s happy both campaigns agreed to the debate, the network plans to let Trump and Biden be the stars of the show.

“The fact that we got it was something of a moment for us,” Thompson said. “Much of the reaction of the public, the rest of the media, and other politicians is going to depend on President Trump and President Biden, who are the stars of the show.”