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Trump to debate moderators: Don’t even think about fact-checking me. My supporters are watching!
This is a remarkable exchange from an interview with Donald Trump on Fox and Friends this morning:
QUESTIONER: Lester **** — should he be a moderator, and just ask questions, or should he be a fact checker, where he asks a question, and if somebody says something that he thinks is wrong, that he’s gonna try to correct the record? What would you like to see — a moderator, or a fact checker?
TRUMP: Well, I think he has to be a moderator. You’re debating somebody, and if she makes a mistake, or if I make a mistake, we’ll take each other on. But I certainly don’t think you want Candy Crowley again.
QUESTIONER: [Snickers knowingly.] She was wrong!
TRUMP: I really don’t think you want that. That was a very pivotal moment in that debate. And it really threw the debate off. And it was unfair. So I don’t think you want that. No, I think you have to have somebody that just lets ’em argue it out.
You know, I think there’s a lot of pressure on Lester. I think Lester’s a very good person, a very good man. I think there’s a lot of pressure on him. You know, when I had the town hall, last week with Hillary, I did well, and I had tough questions. But the polls all had her taking a drubbing….They went after Matt Lauer, and I’ve never seen anything like it….That’s what they’re doing with Lester ****…and a lot of people are watching to see whether he succumbs to that pressure.
As you may recall, during one of the 2012 debates, Candy Crowley gently pointed out that Mitt Romney was wrong when he said that Obama had not immediately called the Benghazi attacks an “act of terror.” The wrath of Romney supporters bore down on Crowley for days in the wake of this shocking transgression. But, despite the snickering on Fox and Friends about this, Crowley was basically right: On the day after the attacks, Obama said: “no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation.”
[Charles Lane: Why the media blitz on Trump isn’t working]
It would not be unreasonable for the upcoming debates’ moderators to hear Trump’s allusion to Crowley and conclude that if they challenge him on the facts, they can expect to be subjected to days and days of rage and abuse from his surrogates and supporters, just as she was. After all, as he put it, “a lot of people” (i.e., his supporters) will see such conduct as “succumbing” to pressure from Clinton supporters, and they’re “watching” for that.
It’s true, as Trump argues, that Clinton and her supporters went hard after Matt Lauer after the recent town hall, because they were unhappy with his soft questioning of Trump, and that many went on to cite the Lauer failure as a cautionary tale for the debate moderators to avoid. This, as Trump notes, is also a form of pressure and ref-gaming.
Also:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Trump is so scared that he wants us to dismantle the Constitution
This is a remarkable exchange from an interview with Donald Trump on Fox and Friends this morning:
QUESTIONER: Lester **** — should he be a moderator, and just ask questions, or should he be a fact checker, where he asks a question, and if somebody says something that he thinks is wrong, that he’s gonna try to correct the record? What would you like to see — a moderator, or a fact checker?
TRUMP: Well, I think he has to be a moderator. You’re debating somebody, and if she makes a mistake, or if I make a mistake, we’ll take each other on. But I certainly don’t think you want Candy Crowley again.
QUESTIONER: [Snickers knowingly.] She was wrong!
TRUMP: I really don’t think you want that. That was a very pivotal moment in that debate. And it really threw the debate off. And it was unfair. So I don’t think you want that. No, I think you have to have somebody that just lets ’em argue it out.
You know, I think there’s a lot of pressure on Lester. I think Lester’s a very good person, a very good man. I think there’s a lot of pressure on him. You know, when I had the town hall, last week with Hillary, I did well, and I had tough questions. But the polls all had her taking a drubbing….They went after Matt Lauer, and I’ve never seen anything like it….That’s what they’re doing with Lester ****…and a lot of people are watching to see whether he succumbs to that pressure.
As you may recall, during one of the 2012 debates, Candy Crowley gently pointed out that Mitt Romney was wrong when he said that Obama had not immediately called the Benghazi attacks an “act of terror.” The wrath of Romney supporters bore down on Crowley for days in the wake of this shocking transgression. But, despite the snickering on Fox and Friends about this, Crowley was basically right: On the day after the attacks, Obama said: “no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation.”
[Charles Lane: Why the media blitz on Trump isn’t working]
It would not be unreasonable for the upcoming debates’ moderators to hear Trump’s allusion to Crowley and conclude that if they challenge him on the facts, they can expect to be subjected to days and days of rage and abuse from his surrogates and supporters, just as she was. After all, as he put it, “a lot of people” (i.e., his supporters) will see such conduct as “succumbing” to pressure from Clinton supporters, and they’re “watching” for that.
It’s true, as Trump argues, that Clinton and her supporters went hard after Matt Lauer after the recent town hall, because they were unhappy with his soft questioning of Trump, and that many went on to cite the Lauer failure as a cautionary tale for the debate moderators to avoid. This, as Trump notes, is also a form of pressure and ref-gaming.
Also:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Trump is so scared that he wants us to dismantle the Constitution
