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Monday’s Presidential Debate Puts NBC’s Lester Holt in the Hot Seat

Sep 23, 2016  •  Post A Comment

A lot is riding on the presidential debate scheduled for Monday between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and one person with more at stake than most is “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt.

CNN notes that the debate, which Holt will moderate, “may be the most highly anticipated presidential debate in American history.”

The debate, CNN, adds, “will take place against the backdrop of the recent bombings in New York and New Jersey, the violent protests in the streets of Charlotte and the tensions of a country very much at odds over its future. It is an immense responsibility, and opportunity, for a man who once seemed destined to spend his career as NBC’s quiet journeyman, working in the shadow of Brian Williams with no guarantee of his own time in the spotlight.”

Holt figures to be up to the challenge, according to the report, which quotes colleagues including Tom Brokaw praising the newsman.

But the report notes that it will fall on Holt to again polish the reputation of NBC News, as he did when he took the reins of the flagship newscast in the wake of Williams’ fall from grace. This time around, Holt will be called on to do some cleanup after a widely criticized recent attempt by Matt Lauer to put on a presidential forum.

We encourage readers to click on the link near the top of this story to read CNN’s full analysis.

nbc nightly news-lester holt

9 Comments

  1. Enough with the media debating this topic. Both candidates should be held to the same level of expectations (no lower bar for Trump) and be called out when the facts do not match their position. That is what we as the voters demand. There should be no discussion. Any moderator who feels they are not responsible for that should be replaced.

  2. Matt Lauer was wrongly criticized for interrupting Hillary, who likes to filibuster to reduce the number of questions she gets asked. No side will agree with the questions that their favorite is asked. These are not issues that Matt should have been measured against and are not the issues that Lester should be measured against. His job is to moderate, not to make partisans happy.

  3. The questions must be different for many of the topics. You can’t ask Mr. Trump about leaving 4 dead Americans in Benghazi, scrubbing out 30,000+ emails, uranium deals that gave Russia control of the uranium, foreign payments to your personal foundation that only uses 1/10 of the money for any public work, appointing people to government jobs that gave you donations (hundreds of them!), granting meetings with people that paid for that access, stealing property from the White House – you get the picture. Sure Mr. Trump can be asked about any business deals he has had that were troubled or improper, his potential policy positions and his opinion on any other subject. But Ms. Clinton has a horrible RECORD of scandals, illegal activities as testified to bu the head of the FBI and money gathering and laundering through the Clinton foundation. Questions about those activities are what the American public has a right to know the answers to. When the questions are FACTUALLY based, nobody can complain about the person asking the questions.

  4. I am a Trump supporter but past Bill Clinton supporter as well so be that as it may am shocked to see that someone is allowing Mark Cuban a fromnt seat position for the sole purpose of antagonizing Donald Trump and thus throwing the debate. Is ths actually being allowed? If it is based on money perhas I too could have the prestige of a front row seat at the debate too since I have given money as well. Let it be a fair debate on issues not dirt and not letting Mark Cuban control anything

  5. Wow! Lester Holt is no Brian Williams when it comes to live reporting. I am certain that he will do great, and if he does not, then expect all of the folks from “Black Lives Matter” to cry racism…. Lester Holt will do well because he never makes the coverage about himself. I am proud of you Lester….. Moooowa! LOL

  6. Mark Cuban is a riot. Smart and cool as f**k in my opinion. He gave Dan Rather a chance to do something different on HD NET and makes good decisions. I can learn a lot from someone like Mark Cuban.

    There will be no “throwing” of the debate. As long as Mr. Trump remains focused, he will keep that evil woman at bay….His campaign manager….LOL

    Mark, if this is true, you are better than this. Let Mr. Trump have his moment and THEN buy his real estate holdings out of Bankruptcy for pennies on the dollar, and the world will be happy again.

  7. Matt Lauer did a great job, in my opinion. However, he is too much of a “celebrity” and no longer a “Journalist” and this is what throws things off. Even Brian Williams is more of a Journalist than Matt is these days. He was a little too “chillaxed” for such an event. And Hillary deserved to be cut off…just like she did to Bill which caused him to become a sex addict. But we will save that one for another day.

    To me, this seems like Lester’s “make or break” moment.

  8. I have a lot of respect for Lester Holt, and I feel his position tonight will be “damned if he fact checks and damned if he doesn’t.” But, let us not forget that our founding fathers gave us freedom of the press to ensure the truth comes out, or otherwise, all we will hear are the lies from someone saying what they think voters want to hear or what will advance their position, no matter what. Supposedly in November, Americans are going to make an informed decision on the future of the country and the world. How can anyone make a truly informed decision when candidates lie and those lies are allowed to just lay there and be perceived as truth?

  9. What Lester Holt did with hand signals and allowing HIllary to use a teleprompter means he needs to resign. His duplicity in the Clinton cheating during the lst presidential debate is a disgrace. Also, I would say that the retired NBC employee, he worked with, George Lewis should also be admonished for his part in this latest Clinton scandal. MSM should be learning a lesson from all of this..you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can NEVER fool all of the people all of the time. No wonder HIllary spent so much time preparing for the debate…all of this cheating had to be well choreographed.

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