Trump Campaign Outraged Over The Selection Of Second Debate Moderator

The moderator for the second presidential debate has been announced and the Trump campaign is furious. 

C-SPAN anchor and host of “ Washington Journal” Steve Scully will be moderating the next presidential debate on October 15th. Trump and his campaign are calling him out for his ties to former Vice President Joe Biden.

Scully was an intern for Biden after he arrived in Washington, D.C. as a student. He would later work as a staff assistant for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. 

An old tweet from his social media resurfaced on Thursday. It contains a photo of him and Biden with the caption “Gotta love the @VP at the Biden Beach Bash ‘16.”

In response, Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller tweeted, “Don’t forget to change before the debate, fellas!”

Gotta love the @VP at the Biden Beach Bash '16 pic.twitter.com/Z9gdC6Cmi1

— Steve Scully (@SteveScully) June 4, 2016

No, Not Trump, Not Ever https://t.co/PFvHTeQSZu

— Steve Scully (@SteveScully) March 18, 2016

Scully’s past connections with Biden provoked criticism from Republicans and caused concern about potential bias at the debate. 

“How is this even possible?” asked the vice president of the conservative Media Research Center, Dan Gainor. “When they picked the moderator did they try to ensure that it would be biased to benefit Biden? This is the equivalent of giving the Democrats home-field advantage.”

About a month ago Scully did an interview in which he promised to be fair “ across the board.” He noted that his training as a backup moderator in 2016 helped to prepare him for his role in this election.

Scully’s debate will be held at the Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida, and will be conducted in a townhall format.

“The town hall meeting is unique because it’s really more of a facilitator role, but to listen carefully, to follow up, to make sure that the president, that Joe Biden … follow the rules, that they don’t filibuster,” said Scully “And my hope really is that we’re going to ask very direct questions, and we’re going to push for very direct answers, and to make sure it’s fair across the board.”

Scully graduated from American University and in 1985 received his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. According to his bio, Scully began managing election coverage with C-SPAN in 1992.