Clinton: “He refuses to take responsibility for his support”. But to many female viewers, something else leaped out: Lauer constantly interrupted Hillary Clinton throughout their exchange. Then had to rush her along. “What kind of homework are you doing?”
Advertisement
Trump cited a 2004 Esquire article in which he questioned the Bush administration’s handling of the war. “You can look at before that”. Although this claim has been debunked by news agencies in the past, Lauer completely missed the mark to call Trump out on his obvious falsehood. Clinton had to set the record straight about having ground troops in Iraq and Syria, while Trump insisted that he really wasn’t for the war in Iraq, despite making statements he made to the contrary on the Howard Stern radio show in 2002.
“Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew this would happen”, tweeted Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times.
Trump did not publicly oppose the war until well after the invasion. In a four-way race with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Trump is up four, as noted in the Real Clear Politics average of daily tracking polls.
However, many of Trump’s defense plan would be hard, if not impossible, to be executed, and would cost tens of billions of dollars, many local analysts said.
Most voters see Clinton’s family foundation, which has come under sharp criticism from Trump over how donors to the foundation interacted with Clinton while she was secretary of state, as an organization that should be shuttered if Clinton is elected to avoid possible conflict of interest, with a sizable share saying it should be closed down now. Trump has also cut into Hillary Clinton’s once double-digit leads in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Challenged, she didn’t immediately have the back-up material available, enabling Trump to sail past the moment.
In this election, about 14 percent of voters are either choosing an alternative to Trump or Clinton or still haven’t made up their minds, compared to 2012’s rate which hovered around five percent.
With just two months until Election Day, national security has emerged as a centrepiece issue in the White House race.
Will Holt jump in and fact-check? Fox’s Chris Wallace, who will moderate the final debate says that is not part of the job.
Many intense partisans don’t believe – or don’t care – when an independent analyst questions the truth of a candidate’s statements. It is not. There are a thousand other substantive issues – from China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea to National Security Agency intelligence-gathering to military spending – that would have revealed more about what the candidates know and how they would govern.
Advertisement
The response illustrated the pressure moderators will face during the three upcoming presidential debates, starting with Lauer’s NBC colleague Lester Holt on September 26. The New York Times was blunt: Lauer seemed “unprepared”, “like a soldier sent on a mission without ammunition”.
