Being a candidate in a presidential debate is one of the toughest challenges in running for the office. For 90 minutes or so, you have the eyes of millions — a record 84 million Monday night — waiting for you to misspeak, have a brain freeze or make some other verbal or non-verbal gaffe.
Almost as nerve-racking, though, has got to be the role of debate moderator.
Lester Holt of NBC News took some grief from both sides for his performance in that role during the first faceoff between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Although Trump, who had the poorer showing, at first gave Holt good marks, by the next morning the GOP nominee downgraded him. Trump claimed Holt fact-checked him more than Clinton and gave him tougher questions. Meanwhile, some Democrats, at least until they felt their candidate won, were complaining that Holt was giving Trump too much leeway, letting him exceed his time and interrupt Clinton during her time.
It was probably inevitable that no moderator was going to be able to please both sides, given the hypersensitivity of their camps.
Trump got challenged more on the facts because his fictions tend to be more glaring. If anyone, though, should be complaining about Holt being lax with Trump, it should be Trump himself. His interruptions and general rudeness made his claim of having a more presidential “temperament” laughable.
