The Democratic National Committee is raising objections to Politico‘s choice to co-host the next Democratic primary debate, political reporter Tim Alberta, in part because of his previous work for National Review.
Politico will co-host the sixth Democratic primary debate with PBS on December 19 in Los Angeles. Politico‘s publisher, Robert Allbritton, is pushing for Alberta, the chief political correspondent for Politico magazine, to be one of the debate moderators with PBS, which is considering Judy Woodruff, Yamiche Alcindor and Amna Nawaz, NBC News reported.
However, the prospect of Alberta moderating the debate reportedly has not sat well with the DNC and some PBS and Politico reporters. Critics object to his work at National Review as well as his extensive reporting on the Republican Party. The DNC argues he is not the right choice to moderate a debate focused on informing Democratic voters about the party’s candidates.
Alberta came to National Review from the National Journal and stayed for just over a year, from October 2015 to December 2016. During that relatively short stint, he covered the 2016 presidential election cycle.
Earlier this year, he authored the book, “American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump,” which the New York Times praised as bringing to the page “more than a decade of reporting and a real understanding of the conservative movement.”
Politico is continuing to stand by Alberta as moderator of December’s debate. The DNC is planning six more debates in 2020 between January and April.