30 Blocked

Behind the scenes at 30 Rock, news that Kamala Harris’ campaign had accepted the CNN debate did not play well. Far from it.

Author

Oliver Darcy
September 23, 2024

NBC News offices. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images)

NBC News is once again on the outs.

The conventional wisdom, up until the weekend, had been that if there were to be a second presidential debate, the Cesar Conde-run NBCU News Group would be the most likely to host. With only 40-some days until the November election, NBC News is the only broadcast network — sans FOX — that has not managed to lock a general election debate.

But CNN had other plans. The network’s chief, Mark Thompson, sent a Saturday letter to both campaigns, inviting them to the network’s Atlanta headquarters for an October 23 rematch. Donald Trump’s campaign rebuffed the invite (we’ll see if that changes) while the Kamala Harris campaign immediately accepted.

Behind the scenes at 30 Rock, news that Harris’ campaign had accepted the CNN debate did not play well. Far from it. I’m told that, quietly, NBC News had been…

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