For Next GOP Debate, Fox Business Benches Maria Bartiromo
One familiar face will not be firing questions at the Republican candidates for president at the next GOP debate.
Maria Bartiromo will not be one of the moderators for the second GOP debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election, set to air Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 9/8c on Fox Business. Instead, Fox News’ Stuart Varney and Dana Perino and Univision’s Ilia Calderón will co-moderate the debate, Fox Business announced on Wednesday. (Bartiromo co-moderated with Neil Cavuto the last time Fox Business hosted a GOP debate in 2016.)
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“We are very proud to have Stuart Varney and Dana Perino co-moderating the second debate with Univision to provide Americans with a comprehensive view of the qualifying candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president,” Fox News president and executive editor Jay Wallace said in a statement.
Bartiromo’s absence from the moderator list is conspicuous, but not unexpected. Her shows on Fox News and Fox Business played host to a number of guests claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump — claims that led to a whopping $787 million settlement paid by Fox News to electronic voting company Dominion Voting Systems. Bartiromo is also a defendant in a pending $2.7 billion lawsuit by another electronic voting company, Smartmatic, along with her employer Fox News.
The first GOP debate of the 2024 election drew 13 million viewers earlier this month on Fox News, despite the fact that current frontrunner Donald Trump did not participate. Debate No. 1 moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum earned an average TVLine reader grade of “C-” for their performance, while 30% of those who participated in our poll said Nikki Haley won the debate.
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