Lauer struggled to find a balance in his thirty-minute interviews with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
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Clinton had her own shaky moments at the forum.
Trump, who has never held elected office, has criticized Clinton’s judgment for backing the 2003 Iraq war and her support for the USA intervention in Libya in 2011. “I was totally against the war in Iraq”, Trump claimed, and also said he had opposed intervention in Libya. “I find it frustrating, but it’s just part of the landscape that we live in and we just keep forging ahead”.
During his monologue, Colbert called out the same things analysts and Noah did: Lauer’s overemphasis on Clinton’s emails and lack of follow-up on Trump’s responses. “I’m not sure anything surprises us anymore, but I was certainly disappointed”.
But despite his campaign and joint political committees’ best effort, it was still 40% less than the record-busting $143 million haul Hillary Clinton and her allied committees’ pulled off, according to CNN. By contrast, he found 14 percent of Clinton statements he studied reached that level, which he said was typical of most politicians. Perhaps, as The New York Times suggested, he was unprepared, or maybe he had barely been paying attention to Clinton-the former secretary of state had already stated that Trump supported the war before, during, and after the invasion.
Wednesday’s forum served as a preview of sorts for Clinton and Trump’s highly-anticipated presidential debates.
The media has largely failed to expose and correct Trump’s lies throughout this campaign, but it’s never too late to start. Hopefully, the hosts of the presidential debates hold up to a higher standard than Matt Lauer did, so that we can truly see the main presidential candidates put to the test. I mean, you can say, oh, isn’t that a awful thing?
Clinton, who voted in favor of the 2003 Iraq war as a senator but has since said she regrets doing so, said she would convene a meeting of bipartisan security experts on Friday to discuss the fight against Islamic State.
Media critics are entitled to disparage Lauer’s knowledge and performance, as that is their job.
Clinton’s lead over Trump in national opinion polls has weakened in recent days. They relentlessly (and often erroneously) fact-check the Republican candidate while letting the Democrat say things like what Obama said about Russian Federation in 2012. By only scratching the superficial with his questions and not keeping candidates honest with their answers, Matt Lauer let both candidates off of the hook. And he said, I’m working on it, working on it.
In the Republican primaries, Trump’s opponents were repeatedly frustrated by his ability to dominate the news cycle with provocative comments and his failure to suffer any consequences for his words.
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TRUMP: Well, the generals under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have not been successful.
