Clinton's campaign attacks Matt Lauer with fundraiser saying he 'failed' in Commander-in-Chief Forum as NBC exec calls performance a 'disaster'
- NBC anchor Matt Lauer drew jeers from Democrats for his questions during a live broadcast event with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
- Clinton partisans were upset that he failed to challenge Trump's claim that he opposed the Iraq war early on but grilled Hillary about classified emails
- Now Clinton's campaign is fundraising off the controversy, saying 'Trump lies a lot' and saying Lauer 'fail[ed] to fact-check' him
- One NBC News executive told a CNN media analyst that Lauer's showing was 'a disaster'
Hillary Clinton's campaign is cashing in on 'Today Show' host Matt Lauer's widely panned performance interviewing Donald Trump in a new fundraising email.
Lauer has been been excoriated in the media for failing to challenge Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump when he said he was 'always' against the Iraq war.
Adding to the sting for Clinton partisans, Lauer had grilled Clinton for 15 minutes at the top of NBC's 'Commander in Chief' forum, which was watched by an estimated 15 million people in prime time.
'Last night, during the Commander-in-Chief Forum on live national television, Donald Trump kicked off his evening by lying to the American people about his position on the Iraq War – and no one stopped to call him on it,' says the fundraising email.
'Not only did the moderator, Matt Lauer, fail to fact-check Trump – he then kept the conversation moving,' the cash plea continued.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is now fundraising off 'Today Show' host Matt Lauer's interview of Donald Trump and herself at an NBC forum
'The worst part is, there's nothing new about this happening. We all know that Trump lies a lot. And we all know that many outlets in the press apparently lack the wherewithal to call him out – and help voters understand that what they're hearing from Trump isn't just normal political talk, but an unprecedented descent into unqualified nonsense from a major-party presidential nominee.'
People on Clinton's extensive mailing list are asked to 'step up' and contribute.
'At this point, we should understand that we just can't sit around and wait for fact checkers in the media to keep Trump honest. We have to step up and do it ourselves. No one will do it for us. And the outcome of the election could hang in the balance,' the appeal ends.
As recently as Wednesday early evening, Trump was publicly questioning whether Lauer would be 'fair' to him.
Clinton's fundraising appeal says Donald Trump 'lies a lot' and bashes Matt Lauer for failing to fact-check the candidate
THIS COULD WORK OUT FOR BOTH OF US: The Clinton campaign is now raising money off Matt Lauer's failure to 'fact-check' Trump
Trump responded Thursday to the Clinton camp's attach on his record on the issue, saying he opposed the Iraq war 'from the beginning'
Although both camps reportedly agreed to Lauer as the moderator for the debate, the Trump camp was concerned about one of Lauer's Clinton associations. He is listed as a 'notable past member' of the Clinton Global Initiative, although the Clinton Foundation says journalist members such as Lauer weren't asked to make the $20,000 membership contribution.
And it is usually Trump who rails against the 'dishonest' media, as he did Thursday when he insisted he was against the Iraq war from the 'beginning' and moaned about the media.
Trump spent several minutes during what was billed as an education speech running through his 2003 and 2004 Iraq war statements. 'The media is so terribly dishonest, so I had to do this,' Trump said.
'I was opposed to the war from the beginning,' he said.
Lauer focused on the email scandal for about half his interview with the former secretary of state, asking whether it was 'disqualifying' to be president.
'Why wasn’t it more than a mistake? Why wasn’t it disqualifying, if you want to be commander-in- chief?' he asked.
Lauer has been labeled a 'morning show lightweight' by furious political pundits after he failed to grill Donald Trump on his claim he never supported the Iraq War during a Commander in Chief Forum on Wednesday night - but relentlessly questioned Hillary over her private email scandal.
The NBC Today show host was accused of going too easy on Trump when the Republican candidate repeated his claim to have always 'totally opposed the Iraq war', when in fact he supported an invasion during a 2002 Howard Stern interview.
Instead of stopping Trump in his tracks during the session at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan, Lauer accepted his answer and immediately moved onto the next question - even though Clinton had told him during her interview beforehand that Trump had backed the war.
Matt Lauer has been accused of anti-Clinton bias during NBC's Commander in Chief Forum on Wednesday night after failing to challenge Trump on claims he 'totally opposed' the Iraq war
Lauer questioned Clinton for almost seven minutes of a 30 minute segment over her emails, many times talking over before demanding she only briefly touch on other important topics such as ISIS.
'Lauer interrupted Clinton's answers repeatedly to move on. Not once for Trump,' wrote respected Capitol Hill watcher Norman Ornstein on Twitter, adding: 'Tough to be a woman running for president.'
Indeed, the problem for many was that while Lauer seemed to aggressively question Clinton during the first segment of the forum, his questions to Trump were softer, weaker and open-ended, allowing Trump to ignore them or power through unscathed.
During her own answer on her support for the Iraq war, Clinton pointed out that Trump has not acknowledged the fact he once supported it during a 2002 interview, a fact that Lauer did not pick up later in the interview
NBC News later republished a fact-checking article on Trump's claim, pointing out that he supported the war in a 2002 interview with Howard Stern before changing his position
Lauer's insistence on pressing and interrupting Clinton on her email debacle while breezing through Trump's answers led to some accusing him of trying to prove his journalistic chops.
'I think Matt Lauer was trying desperately to impress others in the press to prove he's not just a morning show lightweight. Failed.
Democrats accused Lauer of 'wasting time' on a topic that has been discussed throughout the election, and then attempting to hurry Clinton along on later topics, insisting there was not enough time.
Matthew Gertz wrote on Twitter: 'Maybe if Matt Lauer hadn't spent 13 minutes on emails there'd be more time for ISIS.'
Commentator Guy Cecil added: 'I take no issue with asking Hillary tough questions, but with all of the global challenges, this is a waste of time.'
Tommy Vietor, a former aide to President Obama, noted: 'How in the hell does Lauer not factcheck Trump lying about Iraq? This is embarrassingly bad.'
'Seriously — everyone, and I mean everyone, knew this would happen. And Matt Lauer didn't have a followup planned?' wrote political columnist Paul Krugman.
Glenn Kessler, the chief fact checker at The Washington Post, posted a link to NBC's check of Trump's claim and wrote: 'Matt Lauer should have been prepared to do this.'
Matthew Yglesias wrote on Twitter: 'So Matt Lauer's plan is just to let Trump lie about his past statements on Iraq?'
Journalist Jonathan Chait observed: 'Trump lies about opposing Iraq war. Lauer lets it go. No follow up. Unreal.'
In an article for New York Magazine he wrote: 'Lauer's performance was not merely a failure, it was horrifying and shocking.'
Democrats felt Lauer spent too long questioning Clinton over her emails while giving Trump a free pass on his support for the war
Clinton's campaign spokesman was eager to point out that, had Clinton not mentioned Trump's support in her earlier answer about Iraq, his comment would have gone unnoticed
Commentators criticized the broadcaster's approach while interviewing both Trump and Clinton
Commentators said the interview focused too much on Clinton's emails rather than addressing global issues
During her answers, Clinton repeated claims that she did not knowingly handle confidential information on her private server.
She said: 'Classified material has a header, which says 'top secret', 'secret', 'confidential'. Nothing, and I have repeatedly said this, and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice. None of the emails sent or received by me had such a header.'
Clinton went on to say that whenever she was sent such an email, on a separate system, she always viewed it in private, even going into tents set up for such a purpose so the messages couldn't be spied on.
She added: 'So I did exactly what I should have done. And I take it very seriously. Always have, always will.'
She also said in her defense that 'hundreds of experienced foreign policy experts, diplomats, defense officials' communicated sensitive information over an unclassified system 'because it was necessary to answer questions and to be able publicly to go as far as we could, which was not acknowledging the program.'
Even if she had used the State Department's email system, her communications may still have been compromised, she argued after Lauer asked her about the possibility of a hack on her secret server.
Trump has repeatedly stated on the campaign trail that he has always opposed the conflict in Iraq, but in fact he once told Howard Stern that he supported it, before later modifying his position
'Matt, there is no evidence– of course anything is possible. But what is factual is the State Department system was hacked,' she declared.
'Most of the government's systems are way behind the curve. We've had hacking repeatedly, even in the White House. There is no evidence my system was hacked.'
Lauer's frequent interruptions of Clinton later on in the interview also drew allegations of sexism from some, who suggested he allowed Trump far more freedom to talk.
It was left to Hillary herself to point out that Trump initially said he was in favor of the conflict before modifying his position after the war had started.
She said: 'My opponent was for the war in Iraq. He says he wasn't. You can go back and look at the record. He supported it. He told Howard Stern he supported it.
'So he supported it before it happened, he supported it as it was happening, and he is on record as supporting it after it happened.'
In total Clinton spent almost 12 minutes of a 30 minute segment answering questions on her emails, a fact the Democrats later criticized as biased and said detracted from more important issues such as ISIS
Asked about her own support for military intervention in Iraq, Clinton says she now accepts that it was 'a mistake', adding that voting to give Bush the authority to take troops into the Middle East was 'my mistake'.
But, she added: 'I have taken my responsibility for my decision. He [Trump] refuses to take responsibility for his support.'
Meanwhile, during an answer on how he would combat ISIS, Trump said 'I was totally against the war in Iraq', a statement that Lauer let slide.
On the campaign trail Trump has repeatedly stated that he opposed the Iraq war from the very beginning while attacking Clinton and Obama's foreign policy which he blames for the rise of ISIS.
But asked whether he supported George Bush's decision to go to war in 2002, before the conflict started, Trump told Howard Stern: 'Yeah. I guess so. I wish the first time it was done correctly.'
It was only later the the Republican nominee modified his position, describing the conflict as a 'mess' and a failure.
NBC did reprise a fact-checking article they previously published on Trump's claim following the show, but some viewers were not appeased.
Posting a link to the fact-checking story on Twitter, Isaac Wright, director of Correct The Record, wrote: 'Too bad they didn't WHEN HE WAS BEING INTERVIEWED.'
Meanwhile Hillary's campaign press secretary Brian Fallon wrote: 'At least Hillary Clinton rebutted him on this lie, or else it would go unchecked.'
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