Lauer’s rough night increases pressure on debate moderators
NEW YORK — Traffic cop or truth detector? The rough reception given Matt Lauer for his back-to-back interviews with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump laid bare a disagreement over whether journalists who moderate presidential debates should call candidates out for telling lies.
Online critics hit Lauer for spending too much time on Clinton’s email server and trying to cut her answers short during Wednesday’s NBC forum on national security issues. The bulk of the attacks, however, centred on Lauer’s failure to challenge Trump on the Republican’s assertion that he opposed the war in Iraq from its beginning, despite evidence of him supporting the war in a 2002 interview.
“Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew this would happen,” tweeted Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times. “And Matt Lauer didn’t have a followup planned?”
The NBC “Today” show host wasn’t talking on Thursday, laying low on a day the hashtag “Lauering the Bar” trended on Twitter. He made one knowing reference while interviewing Dana Carvey on “Today.” The comic, impersonating Russian leader Vladimir Putin, commended Lauer for his work at the forum. “You have a fan,” he said.