Hillary Clinton’s campaign is pressuring Monday night’s moderator to take a more active role in the presidential debate, saying it’s “unfair” to expect the Democratic presidential nominee to dispute the veracity of Donald Trump’s claims.
“It’s unfair to ask for Hillary both to play traffic cop with Trump, make sure that his lies are corrected, and also to present her vision for what she wants to do for the American people,” Robby Mook said on ABC’s “This Week.”
When pressed by host George Stephanopoulos that that’s “what a debater is supposed to do,” Mr. Mook said this case is “special.”
“Well, I think Donald Trump’s special,” Mr. Mook said. “We haven’t seen anything like this. We normally go into a debate with two candidates who have a depth of experience, who have rolled out clear, concrete plans, and who don’t lie, frankly, as frequently as Donald Trump does.”
“So we’re saying this is a special circumstance, a special debate, and Hillary should be given some time to actually talk about what she wants to do to make a difference in people’s lives,” he continued. “She shouldn’t have to spend the whole debate correcting the record.”
The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has ruled that presidential debate moderators should act as facilitators of conversation and only occasionally intervene during confrontations between the candidates.
The first debate will be moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt. He is under pressure to improve upon the performance of “Today” host Matt Lauer, who was heavily criticized by the Clinton camp for his moderation of a presidential town hall earlier this month.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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