Trump Calls NBC News Anchor And Fellow GOP'er Lester Holt A Democrat
NBC's Lester Holt will moderate the Sept. 26 debate between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Trump mistakenly called Holt "a Democrat," suggesting that he and other debate moderators would be "unfair." In fact, Holt is a registered Republican. Andy Kropa/Andy Kropa /Invision/AP hide caption
NBC's Lester Holt will moderate the Sept. 26 debate between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Trump mistakenly called Holt "a Democrat," suggesting that he and other debate moderators would be "unfair." In fact, Holt is a registered Republican.
Andy Kropa/Andy Kropa /Invision/APIt appears that as far as the news media is concerned, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sees Democrats everywhere. Even when they're not.
Take his friendly chat Monday night with Fox's Bill O'Reilly, who asked Trump about the scheduled moderators of his debates with Hillary Clinton. If you missed it, here's a portion of the transcript courtesy of The Washington Post when they talked about the journalists who will be asking the questions, including Lester Holt of NBC:
"TRUMP: And by the way, Lester is a Democrat.
"O'REILLY: I didn't know that.
"TRUMP: Look, it's a phony system. Lester is a Democrat. I mean, they are all Democrats. Okay? It's a very unfair system."
Well, we checked that part about NBC's Lester Holt, who will moderate the first debate on Sept. 26.
In fact, as Time magazine also points out, Holt has been a registered Republican in the state of New York since 2003.
Trump called @LesterHoltNBC a Democrat. Not so. NYState voter form shows Holt, moderator of Monday's debate, is a registered Republican pic.twitter.com/XzoVYU9es8
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) September 20, 2016
Once more, a declarative statement by Trump contradicted by the facts. (Time magazine is reporting same this afternoon.)
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) September 20, 2016
NBC Senior VP Mark Kornblau says the network has no comment on Trump's false claim about Holt or about its chief anchor's party affiliation
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) September 20, 2016
We also asked the Trump campaign for comment on what the candidate meant to say or the basis of his assertion about Holt's political affiliation, but have not had a response yet.
But Trump did say at a rally Thursday in North Carolina that "I think Lester Holt will be very fair, but a lot of people will be watching to see if that's true."