On Saturday night, after NBC’s Kristin Welker, who will moderate the next presidential debate between President Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, reportedly deactivated her Twitter account on Friday. President Trump said at a Wisconsin rally, “She deleted her entire account. I wonder why? I can’t imagine.”
C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, the original moderator for the second presidential debate, was put on administrative leave after he lied about a tweet he had sent. Scully released a statement admitting that he lied about being hacked on Twitter after he had sent a message seeking advice from Anthony Scaramucci as to whether Scully should respond to the president.
The Daily Mail reported that Welker “briefly deactivated her Twitter account Friday … by Saturday, Welker’s Twitter account was turned back on. A spokesperson for NBC told DailyMail.com that ‘she consulted internally, made sure there was two-factor authentication and turned it back on.’”
Trump said of Welker, “’I’ve known her for a long time, she’s extraordinarily unfair but that’s all right.” Trump turned to NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, who moderated Thursday night’s town hall with him, remarking, “We did very well the other night with a person that I knew was even more unfair, Savannah.”
He joked, “’In fact nobody’s seen Savannah for two days, what happened to Savannah?”
“They said, ‘We’d like to give Savannah Guthrie,” Trump continued. “I said, ‘That’s all right. What difference does it make?’ They ask you a question; you give them an answer. Right? It doesn’t matter. But she was sort of jumping out of her seat, she was like flying. She was like, “I told you, I told you.’ I said, ‘I don’t care what you told me. What does that mean?”
“Then you watch Sleepy Joe get interviewed by George Stephanopoulos, nice guy, but he’s a tough guy, and he’s tough, I interviewed with him two weeks ago, he was tough, he’s giving, like, these lobs, like slow motion lobs,” Trump stated. “No, it’s unfair, but you know what? It’s so unfair, and — we’re president, and they’re not.”
After Guthrie’s performance, as The Daily Wire reported, the Trump campaign stated, “Even though the commission canceled the in-person debate that could have happened tonight, one occurred anyway, and President Trump soundly defeated NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate. President Trump masterfully handled Guthrie’s attacks and interacted warmly and effectively with the voters in the room.”
Federalist co-founder Sean Davis wrote: “If Guthrie had been half as civilized and professional as the questioners—for example, asking a question and then politely listening to the answer without having a temper tantrum—that would’ve been a really illuminating debate. Instead, she went Full Clown and Trump stomped her.”
The Trump campaign also blasted George Stephanopoulos, noting, “Over on ABC it was a completely different scene, as once again Biden was kept comfortable and away from any questions that might challenge him. Americans can see that President Trump is leading the country, has built the economy to the best in the world once and is doing it again, and quite clearly has accomplished more in 47 months than Biden has in 47 years as a failed Washington politician.”