Wednesday night’s “Commander in Chief” forum is quite the talk of the town.
As usual, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump cast stones at each other, but this time on the same stage.
Pro tip for TV news orgs: Don't send guy who who covers cooking segments and puppies to do a political journos job. #LaueringTheBar #Fail
— Lily (@LilyMazahery) September 8, 2016
President Barack Obama joins in on the debate, but in a very Rico Suave way. Always putting Trump in his place, with his pinky out, of course.
And then there’s little Matt Lauer. Oh, Matt Lauer.
All Hail Putin
It’s not an argument of Donald Trump’s unless Barack Obama’s name is being dragged through the mud.
It’s no secret Trump has a huge man crush on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Well, it was quite evident Thursday when Trump applauded Putin and claimed he is a better leader than Obama:
“He’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.”
And you better believe Trump and Putin have each other’s backs in a knife fight:
“If (Putin) says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him. I’ve already said he is really very much of a leader.”
He’s Unpatriotic
Naturally, Clinton went after Trump Thursday morning when interviewed by a group of reporters at the Westchester County Airport. Aviation interviews are kind of her thing:
“Bizarrely once again, he praised Russia’s strongman, Vladimir Putin, even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he preferred the Russian president to our American president. Now, that is not just unpatriotic and insulting, to the people of our country as well as to our commander in chief, it is scary. Because it suggests he will let Putin do whatever Putin wants to do and then make excuses for him.”
And when referencing his response about military generals being “rubble” under the reign of Barack Obama, Clinton lashed out:
“Last night was yet another test and Donald Trump failed yet again. We saw more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief. He trash talked American generals.”
Oh, No You Didn’t
President Obama isn’t one to back down during a fight. After Wednesday’s “Commander in Chief” forum, he had his own qualms about Trump.
He insulted Trump’s intelligence about issues Americans face. Much like a genetic mutation, Obama is worried that some people may become immune to Donald Trump and his mission is to warn us all:
“People start thinking behavior that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous becomes normalized.”
But, this isn’t Obama’s first time warning Americans that we could potentially have a looney in Office if he wins in November:
“You actually have to know what you are talking about and you actually have to have done your homework. When you speak, it should actually reflect thought-out policy you can implement.”
For example, like building a wall on the United States-Mexican border and forcing Mexico to pay for it.
So what vaccine would you recommend, Doc?
“I think the most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow-up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas,” Obama said Thursday.
Where’s Lester Holt
See, Matt Lauer? If you would have got a few pointers from the president before your political debut, you may have leveled the playing field a bit.
There’s two words that come to the forefront of my mind when I think about Matt Lauer’s performance last night; sexist and timid.
Lauer spent most of Clinton’s designated 30 minutes on stage harping on her private email server. As he ran through his questions, he blatantly excused her answers:
“The word judgment has been used a lot around you, Secretary Clinton, over the last year and a half, and in particular concerning your use of your personal email and server to communicate while you were secretary of state.”
As Clinton grits her teeth and “mmhmms” through the question, it’s obvious she wants to punch Lauer in his face.
Lauer spun the same question in multiple facets, but cutting Clinton off when she dare answer. At one point she firmly asked to finish her statement without another interruption. As if men don’t interrupt women enough. Rookie move, Lauer.
When it was Trump’s turn to take the stage, Lauer appeared timid of the average size Oompa Loompa. However, he did ask some eye-bulging questions of Trump.
He confronted Trump with a tweet from 2013 in which he suggested that sexual assaults in the military were to be expected of men and women serving together.
Trump replied, “It is a correct tweet.”
Journalists and political observers negatively critiqued Lauer’s interviews.
Matt Lauer's interviews of Clinton and Trump were a complete disgrace to journalism https://t.co/P3Xv8QbkpH
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) September 8, 2016
Precisely. What an embarrassment. What a travesty. We will remember this, NBC and @mlauer. You are responsible. https://t.co/WESVMoK0d3
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) September 8, 2016
Lauer’s interviews were so pathetic the hashtag “#LaueringTheBar” began trending on Twitter.
Pro tip for TV news orgs: Don't send guy who who covers cooking segments and puppies to do a political journos job. #LaueringTheBar #Fail
— Lily (@LilyMazahery) September 8, 2016
If this is an example of the type of moderators that will be running the upcoming debates, we could be in for a lot of… ummm… ‘entertainment’ without much substance.