CNN announces three moderators for Iowa primary debate

The seventh 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate next week will be moderated by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Abby Phillip as well as The Des Moines Register’s Brianne Pfannenstiel, CNN announced Wednesday.

Blitzer anchors CNN’s “The Situation Room,” while Phillip is a political correspondent for the cable network. Pfannenstiel serves as the chief political correspondent for The Register.

The CNN–Des Moines Register debate is scheduled to take place at 9 p.m. on Jan. 14 on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The event will be the last formal meeting among the top-five candidates before the Hawkeye State holds the first-in-the-nation caucuses on Feb. 3. 

To qualify for next week’s debate, candidates must garner the support of 225,000 unique donors and reach 5 percent support in at least four Democratic National Committee–approved polls or at least 7 percent support in two single-state polls focused on Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada.

Thus far, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) have qualified for the stage, and that appears set ahead of Friday’s qualification deadline barring a polling surge for any candidate who has still not met the Democratic National Committee’s thresholds.