Over the course of the first presidential debate, moderator Lester Holt interrupted Donald Trump a record 41 times to either fact-check or follow-up on the Republican’s statements. Holt did the same only seven times for Hillary Clinton. While he pressed Trump on everything from Birtherism (which Clinton’s campaign started in 2008) to his inconsistencies on the Iraq War, Holt failed to ask Clinton about Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation, her ever-deepening email scandal, or her “deplorables” smear. He also somehow forgot to bring up the issue of immigration.
Despite Holt having “dropped all pretense of objectivity,” Trump praised him afterward, telling CNN he thought he did a “great job” moderating. In defense of Holt, who is a registered Republican, Trump did invite some of the interruptions due to his own habit of running over his time and cutting Clinton off, but the massive disparity between Holt’s treatment of the two candidates is simply too egregious to ignore. The numbers don’t lie: 41 to 7 is no accident—no, this is, as HotAir’s Larry O’Connor put it, Holt learning “The Matt Lauer Lesson.” Below are the most egregious examples of Holt’s mostly one-sided moderation:
.png)
.png)
