【1995 Archives】

For about 10 minutes995 Archives after Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton exchanged initial pleasantries, the two candidates let their contempt boil over.

A heated exchange between the two over trade and economic policies veered into chaos, as Trump talked over Clinton. With Trump seizing control of the debate and hardly letting Clinton get in a word, a refrain began among the Twitterati: Where's Lester?

NBC's Lester Holt, moderator of Monday night's presidential debate, had been under a microscope even before setting foot on the stage. Moderators are always the topic of some discussion, but this year was different.

Holt would be entering strange territory. The debate would for the first time feature a woman, and also for the first time a non-politician whose relationship with the truth has been characterized even by some supporters as casual.

Then there was the Matt Lauer problem. Holt's NBC had recently held a town hall in which Lauer, a host of the Today Show and a contributor to Dateline NBC, had interviewed both candidates. He was widely criticized for spending most of his time with Clinton on her email scandal, while allowing Trump to skate by on factually dubious claims.

That episode helped kick off a round of debate about just what a moderator should do. Should he or she fact check the candidates, or let them fact check each other? Should the candidate try to stop candidates from interrupting each other, or should they let them spar?

The answer ended up being all of the above. In general, Holt provided a light touch on the evening, taking a hands-off approach early on that tended to benefit Trump, who showed little hesitance to interrupt Clinton. Later, Holt became more active, especially as time grew short.

Margaret Sullivan, media columnist at the Washington Post, gave Holt a B- overall. That about mirrored much of the mainstream media.

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Holt started the evening with a joke saying predictions for a 100-million person audience for the debate had his "knees buckling."

After a cordial opening, Trump and Clinton began to spar on trade, with Trump attacking Clinton over the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trump routinely spoke over Clinton as she attempted to push back against his accusations that she supported trade deals that hurt the U.S. economy.

Some felt that Holt should have interrupted to bring some structure to the debate.

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Holt eventually was able to get the debate back on track, though he still remained relatively silent.

An hour into the debate, Holt pushed Trump on the his claims that Barack Obama was not an American citizen. Trump's initial answer dodged the question, but Holt pushed him again on the issue, not once but twice, in followup questions.

Holt's willingness to push Trump on the issue ended up being one of his most notable moments of the evening.

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Holt then revisited Trump's claim over the Iraq War, asserting that he had supported the invasion. Holt and Trump sparred over the question, with Trump taking Holt to task over the situation.

Trump eventually admitted that he gave an interview to Howard Stern in which he indicated support for the Iraq war.

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After the debate, Trump said that Holt had done "a great job" — a statement he walked back on Tuesday morning.

Trump's surrogates were not so kind. Former New York City mayor and vocal Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani went so far as to say that he would skip the next two debates if he were Trump unless the moderator would not act like "an incorrect, ignorant fact checker."

He also said Holt should be "ashamed of himself."

By Tuesday morning, Trump supporters had seized on Holt as an object of their frustration, claiming that he peppered Trump with difficult questions while letting Clinton off the hook.

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Holt pulled solo duty for the first debate, but the second debate will feature CNN's Anderson Cooper and ABC's Martha Raddatz. Fox News host Chris Willace will moderate the third debate.

They're already starting to take some heat.

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