Will she be able to avoid the cacophony of the first debate?
NBC reporter Kristen Welker, who will host the second and final duel between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Thursday, is already accused of pro-Democrat bias by the president and his entourage.
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"
Kristen Welker is a hardened Democratic leftist
," the American president said Monday in Phoenix, according to a proven strategy which consists of trying to discredit the moderator of the debate in advance.
He gave it a layer on Tuesday, noting that the parents of this journalist who has covered the White House since 2011 - the first woman of color to host a presidential debate since 1992 - were fervent Democrats.
In January, Donald Trump had yet congratulated the same Kristen Welker on her induction as co-presenter of the morning of the weekend on NBC.
“
They made a very wise decision
,” he said.
The Philadelphia native immediately bounced back by asking the former real estate developer for an interview, which she never got.
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Kristen Welker is not politically affiliated today and has never donated to a party, even though she was registered as a Democrat in 2012. The 44-year-old journalist should have taken over from Steve Scully, appointed moderator of the second presidential debate scheduled for October 15.
But it was canceled after Donald Trump, then sick with coronavirus, refused to comply with a virtual format.
Steve Scully was then suspended by C-SPAN, after lying about a tweet linked to the president, providing Donald Trump, accustomed to denigrating the media, a new opportunity to question a journalist's alleged bias.
The journalist chose the six major themes of the debate
Cautiously, Kristen Welker masked her own Twitter account for a few hours before reactivating it, an initiative deemed suspicious by several conservative commentators.
Used to political interviews, the quadragenarian with a calm and precise tone therefore succeeds Chris Wallace, overwhelmed by the repeated interruptions of Donald Trump during the first debate on September 29, which had turned into a verbal fist between the two candidates.
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This time, the microphone of the candidate who does not officially speak will be cut, which should simplify the task of Kristen Welker at Belmont University in Nashville (Tennessee), where the face to face will be filmed.
The journalist, known for her capacity for work, has chosen, as tradition dictates, the six major themes of the debate.
She dismissed the highly political subject of the Supreme Court in favor of climate change, but the others are quite similar to the first round.
"
I told her to be herself,
" her mother Julie Welker told the local Philadelphia Tribune daily, while NBC News chairman Noah Oppenheim said she was "
the best of NBC and the world. journalism in general
”.
"
She is fair, thoroughly prepared, interested in the subjects and she will do a great job
", he assured.