CNN anchor Dana Bash has been making headlines all summer. She co-moderated the June presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that ultimately led the president to drop out of the 2024 race and endorse Kamala Harris as his successor. Then she landed the first joint interview with Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz. And she’s twice grilled Trump’s vice-presidential pick, J.D. Vance: Last month, she pressed him on the former president’s racist attacks on Harris, and on Sunday, she got Vance to admit that he’s “creating stories” about Haitian immigrants eating their neighbors’ pets in Ohio.
Hours of careful preparation go into these news-making interviews. “In those situations, I’m spending all of my time focused on the research, watching things that he’s done, talking to the team about what we’re going to ask,” she says. “Then we do draft after draft after draft and wordsmith and talk about order.” Bash has been steeped in this work for decades: Since arriving at CNN fresh out of college in 1993, she’s moved up from library assistant to producer to on-air reporter to chief political correspondent. She’s now one of the most visible faces of the network, anchoring Inside Politics weekdays at noon and co-hosting the flagship Sunday-morning program State of the Union.
Bash is feeling great about this relatively new schedule. “As a beat reporter, most of my time was either on the Hill or on the campaign trail. You’re there early in the morning, you’re there late at night,” she says. “I never had a routine or set hours. Now that my life is centered around a daily show, it’s totally different.” It’s afforded her more time with her son, as well as space to co-author a new book about a 19th-century Louisiana campaign with uncanny parallels to our present-day politics, America’s Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History. Bash lives in Washington, D.C., with her son, Jonah, and their dogs. Here’s how she gets it done.
On her morning routine:
I probably get up around six, and the dogs are desperate to go out, so I go downstairs and let them out. Work-wise, I start reading in as soon as I get up. I look through my emails, I look through whatever happened overnight if I went to sleep early — which is always my goal — to see what I missed from the evening. And then I’m checking in with the executive producer of Inside Politics, who usually will send out a proposed rundown, like what we’re going to do in the show and when we’re going to do it, around 6:45. I’ll look at it, and then we have a show phone call at 7:30 where we talk more in depth about the segments that we’re planning.
While that is happening, I’m usually making sure that my son is wearing some form of clothes. He likes to wake up early. Now the ritual is he will watch the monologue from Jimmy Kimmel the night before and then the highlights on ESPN, because he’s very into sports, so I try to stay engaged and listen to him. One of the two things I know how to cook is French toast made out of challah, so I’ll try to get that done for him. Maybe I can get him to eat a few bites of fruit. But then we get in the car, usually as I’m finishing my call, because Jonah has to be at school at eight o’clock.
On a typical workday:
My morning is all prep for the show, which starts at noon ET. It is getting in and talking to the team, going through segments as the hours progress. As we get closer to showtime, we go more granular. And because it’s the news business, things change, which actually are the days that are the most fun. I’m on the phone, I’m making calls, doing as many source conversations as I can before the show. If we have a news-making interview as part of the show, I’m going over with the producer of that segment what we’re going to ask and why we’re going to ask it. And then I’m writing and going through scripts. As part of prep, I have to go to hair and makeup. That’s a little bit of downtime, I can kind of take a breath, but mostly that also is work time. I’m listening to a podcast, or on the phone with sources, or looking at scripts on my laptop.
The show’s over at one and then we huddle and talk about the next day’s story. Depending on the day, it could be various things that I have in front of me: going to source meetings at the White House or at the Hill, being on the phone, talking to colleagues about upcoming events and projects. If the sky isn’t falling with the news coming out of the day — which has happened a lot lately — I try to pick up my son from school. That’s one of the major benefits of having this schedule.
On managing stress:
It’s cliché, but I do think that having a son who gives me perspective is really important. There are different levels of stress. There’s the stress of doing a daily show, then there’s the stress of social media and all of the b.s. that we deal with there. I try to keep it in perspective and think, you know, some of these people are just trolls. But it’s hard. When you’re posting something that is about politics, it’s really, really hateful. There’s a lot of antisemitism right now, and I am definitely targeted by that. It’s important to keep calling that out.
On an unexpected challenge of her job:
We all have multitasking in our lives, no matter what we do for a living. When watching TV, you just see somebody talking. What you don’t see is somebody’s talking in their ear, and the teleprompter is not working, and the microphone might not be working, or the ISP in your ear might be too loud, or you’re stressed out about the next segment, or the guest you’re talking to has a shot that’s not working properly. There are so many things that go on as the moment of broadcasting is happening that people don’t see. What I have learned the hard way is that when stuff goes wrong, just to explain it and bring the viewers in. “It’s live TV, you know, sorry!” or “I messed that up. That’s my bad.” I’ve learned that you get a little more grace when you pull back the curtain.
On the TV and audiobooks she’s into lately:
To check out, I really want to laugh. So I love Hacks. I did watch The Bear, which is definitely not relaxing. It’s very intense. So I have some exceptions to my “I really only want to laugh” rule. Maya Rudolph I’m obsessed with, have you watched Loot? It’s basically MacKenzie Scott’s story, or like Melinda Gates. It is so hilarious. I really like to listen to memoirs on audio because people tend to read their own. I just listened to Griffin Dunne’s memoir, which was really, really great. I listened to all 48 hours of Barbra Streisand’s memoir.
On what (and who) helps her unwind:
I like to take long walks with the dogs. My boyfriend lives in L.A., and to be fair, he comes here a whole lot more than I go there. His schedule is more flexible than mine. So we will take walks, go for a swim, and try to chill as much as possible. “Me” time is a journey for me. But I’m so lucky that I have great friends, most of whom I call civilians. They’re not in the news business and I’ve been friends with them for years and years. They’re everything to me. We hang out or we’ll go to a brunch or dinner. My parents are local, too, so I get to see them a lot.
On an interview that didn’t go the way she expected:
Back in the Trump administration years, I was interviewing Kellyanne Conway. It was at the time that George Conway, her then-husband, started retweeting things that were anti-Trump and it was just weird. At the end of this segment, I gave what I thought was a little throwaway to allow her to kind of laugh it off, not knowing anything about what was happening behind the scenes. And I still don’t — I mean, they’re divorced now, but this was many years ago. It definitely went sideways, because she went after me and attacked me for bringing that up. It ended up becoming a thing and we went many minutes long. I intended to give her a moment to be kind of lighthearted about, you know, husbands and wives. I did not expect it to go the way it went, and I still feel bad about it. I regret not being prepared for her reaction.
On dealing with criticism:
The key for me is to stay calm and focused and try to stay on target with what it is that I want to get out of the interview and try not to follow the person down the rabbit hole. It’s not always easy, and I’m not always successful. I mean, in today’s world, if I were interviewing a bunny rabbit about what it’s like to be so cute, I would get criticized for being too soft on a bunny rabbit. I feel like that just comes with the territory. It’s remarkable how polarized the world is, and people see things more and more through the lens of their echo chambers.
On the people who help her get it done:
My parents, Stuart and Francie Schwartz. My dad worked for ABC News for 41 years, and so he gets it. He’s retired now, and they love being grandparents. Our babysitter Rosalba, who’s amazing. My assistant, Amanda, she helps me get things done. And the producers on Inside Politics, starting with Ben Geldon, who’s the executive producer, and the whole team, which is very small and mighty. And same with State of the Union, Rachel Streitfeld and the team there. I feel so lucky that I get to work with really talented, and most importantly, just good people.
On the advice she’d give to her younger self:
That instinct that you have to keep your head down and just do the work, and not get caught in the b.s. of either the business or the broader political world, keep that. Because doing the grind day in and day out, getting the experience, having the conversations and making the relationships, that is going to keep you going. You’re not going to be an overnight success, but that’s okay. You’re going to get there eventually. And all of the sort of scars and wounds that you have built along the way, they are part of who you are. Own it and enjoy it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.