Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta falsely claimed Tuesday that the Clinton team never complained about the moderator performance of Matt Lauer at the NBC Commander in Chief forum on Sept. 7.
Discussing the first presidential debate held Monday between Clinton and Donald Trump, Podesta said on Fox News that Trump allies’ criticisms of NBC’s Lester Holt suggested they thought he lost.
"We have a kind-of rule in our campaign. When you’re complaining about the moderator, you’re losing," Podesta said. "So, even when Matt Lauer did the Commander in Chief interview, we felt internally that it was unfair, we never said anything about it."
Podesta said Holt put Trump "on notice" that attempts to "re-write" history on his prior stances on the Iraq War or birtherism would be called out.
"I think, on balance, it was fair," Podesta said.
However, Clinton’s traveling press secretary did not keep his feelings private about Lauer after the Sept. 7 forum on NBC. He tweeted multiple criticisms of NBC News afterwards. Lauer was pilloried by left-leaning critics for asking too many questions about Clinton’s email scandal and not being hard enough on Trump.
Another way of saying this would be: "Imagine if @NBCNews had done its job." https://t.co/6KlNnUaEY3
— Nick Merrill (@NickMerrill) September 8, 2016
.@NBCNews it is irresponsible to allow Trump to go on a 60 second rant about a military intervention that he supported w/o clarifying.
— Nick Merrill (@NickMerrill) September 8, 2016
Top Clinton surrogate Neera Tanden also tweeted her displeasure with Lauer.
I guess the good news is that Matt Lauer isn't moderating an actual debate.
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) September 8, 2016
In addition, liberal media members and other Clinton allies expressed fury about Lauer. The New York Times’ television critic even penned a column slamming him as "lost at sea."
Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt noted the Clinton camp’s public complaints about Lauer, asking Podesta if he was acknowledging then that she "lost the forum."
"No, I think that we felt like, you know, we just don’t complain about the moderator, and I think the Trump side shouldn’t do it, either," Podesta said.