HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY- Lester Holt, the moderator for the first presidential debate of 2016 could not hold back Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton from interrupting each other.
The first presidential debate revealed a lot about where the candidates stood in relationship to each other. However, Trump and Clinton walked all over Lester throughout the entire debate, barely giving him a chance to speak.
Holt began the debate on a promising note by saying, “I am honored to have this role, but this evening belongs to the candidates and, just as important, to the American people.”
Lester told the audience that the 90 minute debate will be split into three sections that include: Achieving prosperity, America’s direction, and securing America. Holt started with how to put more money in the pockets of American workers, but Trump began to talk about how Mexico is stealing U.S. jobs and how he can create 25 million jobs.
“You’ve talked about creating 25 million jobs, and you’ve promised to bring back millions of jobs for Americans. How are you going to bring back the industries that have left this country for cheaper labor overseas? How, specifically, are you going to tell American manufacturers that you have to come back?” Holt asked.
Although these are generally good questions that should provide some insight, nothing came as a result of them as Donald Trump got off topic, blaming Hillary.
“She’s been doing this for 30 years. And why hasn’t she made the agreements better? The NAFTA agreement is defective,” Trump said.
Realizing that Trump was beginning to take over the debate, Holt tried to intervene, but was unsuccessful.
“Let me interrupt just a moment, but…” Holt attempted.
This is where everything went wrong for Holt as he failed to make his voice heard to stop Trump from taking over the debate. As the debate raged on, Holt attempted to give Clinton a greater chance to speak, which revealed to watchers that Trump had already taken over the debate.
“Let me let Secretary Clinton get in here,” Holt interrupted.
With this advantage given to Clinton, Trump was visibly affected as he made faces and continually interrupted Hillary during her response.
“That’s called business by the way!” Trump interrupted while Hillary claimed Trump rooted for the housing crisis.
To no one’s surprise, Holt didn’t make any attempt in telling Trump to stop. Later in the debate, Holt was again nowhere to be found as Trump interrupted Clinton while she spoke about Trump’s position on climate change being a hoax by the Chinese.
“I did not. I did not. I do not say that,” Trump chipped in. “I think science is real,” Hillary responded. “I do not say that,” Trump finished.
Once again Holt sat watching and failed to moderate the debate. This type of crosstalk happened several times throughout the debate, and Lester continually sat with no attempt to intervene. One final instance where Lester failed to moderate came while discussing African American communities.
“They’ve been abused and used in order to get votes by Democrat politicians, because that’s what it is. They’ve controlled these communities for up to 100 years,” Trump argued.
Hearing this, Holt felt determined to intervene, but actually became moderated by Trump at this point.
What followed from Lester from here on out were a plethora of, “Mr. Trump, let me…” and “Mr. Trump, I…”
Despite Donald Trump’s interruptive diction, when November 8th comes around he might have to accept being silenced.
“Will you accept the outcome of the election?” Holt said.
