Donald Trump said Monday that the complaints about Matt Lauer's performance as moderator of NBC's Commander-in-Chief forum were an attempt at "gaming the system" and wanted him and Hillary Clinton to debate without moderators.
Lauer was pilloried by liberals and Clinton allies for what they said was unfair questioning, too much focus on her email scandal, and being too easy on Trump during the forum last week. He was even accused of being sexist and interrupting Clinton too much.
On CNBC's Squawk Box, Trump said the complaints about Lauer were unfounded and that the NBC personality was tough on him with his questions.
"As far as the debates are concerned, the system is being gamed, because everybody said I won the so-called forum that your group put on, but they all said I won and that Matt Lauer was easy on me," Trump said. "Well, he wasn't. I thought he was very professional ... I think he's been treated very unfairly."
Trump predicted he would be treated "very, very unfairly" by the upcoming debate moderators because the Democrats were working the referees, so to speak. He cited legendary basketball coach Bob Knight, who did the same to refs during his games, which Trump argued got him more favorable calls at the end of games.
"He was a master at it," he said. "They're doing the same thing now ... [Lauer] wasn't nice to me. He was tough on me—I answered him better than she did. The fact is that they're gaming the system, and I think, maybe, we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate, because I think the system is being rigged."
Trump predicted the future moderators would be far harder on him to show off for the "establishment."