NBC’s Lester Holt struggled to keep control of the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, learning the dangers of fact-checking in the midst of a tense confrontation being viewed by tens of millions of people.
The NBC News veteran was moderating his first general election debate Monday night, making him solely responsible for the questions asked each candidate and for steering the conversation. At the debate’s opening, he let the conversation flow and the candidates go after each other.
It’s a strategy many debate moderators prefer but, in the debate’s initial stages, left him vulnerable to criticism that he had lost control of the action. The first subject area that Holt introduced, intended to last for 15 minutes, stretched for nearly 45 minutes.
Holt challenged the candidates, particularly Trump, on factual matters as the debate went on. When the “stop-and-frisk” policy of policing was discussed, Holt told Trump that it was declared unconstitutional in New York largely because it singled out black and Latino young men.
“No, you’re wrong,” Trump said, adding that he believed the court decision would have been overturned on appeal.
Said Holt: “The argument is that it’s a form of racial profiling.”
Trump replied: “The argument is that we have to take the guns away from the people who are bad people who shouldn’t have them.”
Holt later brought up the issue of Trump’s questioning whether President Barack Obama had been born in the United States, and asked him what made him conclude this month that Obama was indeed a legitimate citizen. Trump twice did not address the question.
“What do you say to American people of color…” Holt started asking, and Trump cut him off.
“I say nothing,” Trump replied.
Later, Trump disputed reports that he had expressed support for the war in Iraq, calling it a false story put out by the mainstream media. Fact checkers have accused him of not telling the truth.
Holt repeatedly tried to get the candidates to adhere to time limits that were often ignored.
(AP)
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6 Responses
Holt allowed the candidates to go at each other. He also allowed Trump to interrupt Hillary on multiple occasions, go off on self-serving tangents without answering the questions, violate the agreed upon time limits for each segment. Otherwise, he did a great job. Even when he opened the door for Trump to go after Hillary on the email server, Trump went back to prior issues which were totally irrelevant (e.g. what he said on the Howard Stern show, the birth certificate issue, etc.) Otherwise, Holt did a great job.
Unfortunately Hillary will win in a landslide,Trump doesn’t stand a chance, never stood a chance,
@Gadolhadorah- I’m assuming u didn’t watch the full debate because if u did, u would see that Hillary did the EXACT same thing like interrupting, speaking nonsense…. as Mr Trump. Mr Trump did go after Hillary about her email situation, all she said was NOTHING. O and about the totally irrelevant issues Mr Trump went back to, THAT WAS THE ORIGINAL QUESTION. All Hillary did was give herself shout-outs my book,on my website…… And she stated nothing that she’ll do IF she does run out country.
from what i listened to, lester said he was looking for some honesty from clinton and some statesmanship from trump. I believe he got statesmanship from him and honesty from her(admitting the email issue for a moment)
oh, in terms of proffessional debating and familiarity of policy clinton won thats no question-and I’m not even sure he, his team, and republicans were even looking for him to whip her on policy bc everyone already knows the extent of his knowledge on that.hes not worried about that.
I believe lester did a great job taking to the sidelines mostly and let them 2 perform. both sides should see boosts in polls i think.
A moderator has no business arguing with the debaters. Let the other side do that.
Lester did an excellent job. Hillary did a great job, trump was a complete disaster, SAD, loser.