{"id":11902,"date":"2016-09-27T03:11:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T08:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=11902"},"modified":"2024-12-05T14:18:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T19:18:25","slug":"why-donald-trumps-lies-during-the-presidential-debate-dont-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2016\/09\/27\/why-donald-trumps-lies-during-the-presidential-debate-dont-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Donald Trump\u2019s lies during the presidential debate don\u2019t matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Internet’s fact-checking engines were working overtime during Monday night’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Even Clinton’s home page turned into a fact-checking site to debunk the Republican candidate’s statements. But will it matter to his fan base?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, given his performance so far, the Republican candidate repeatedly stretched the truth, denied making certain statements despite ample evidence to the contrary, and twisted the facts until they broke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to one estimate, Trump made more than 34<\/a> comments that were either lies or mis-statements of fact during the debate. Clinton, by comparison, was tagged with four. According to much of the post-debate analysis, Trump also came off looking like a bully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/paulkrugman\/status\/780678635556593664\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: This was\u00a0originally published\u00a0at Fortune, where I was a senior writer from 2015 to 2017<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Moderator Lester Holt got a passing grade<\/a> for his performance from media analysts. He didn’t do as badly as Matt Lauer did in his back-to-back interviews with Trump and Clinton, where he was criticized for not calling the candidate out on his incorrect statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Lauer, the moderator on Monday night stepped in on several occasions to challenge Trump, including his comments about the “stop and frisk” program and his repeated protests that he was not in favor of the Iraq War. Holt pointed out that there is audio evidence that Trump was in favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the event, there was considerable debate about whether a moderator should check<\/a> the facts stated by a candidate, or whether they should remain neutral. Chris Wallace, who will be moderating an upcoming debate, said he didn’t think moderators should check facts because that would be equivalent to expressing an opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holt clearly disagreed. But checking a candidate on his or her statements can also backfire. Some Trump supporters, including Rudy Giuliani<\/a>, suggested after the debate that Holt was too aggressive with the candidate and that meant he was unfair. That could give the Trump campaign more ammunition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

"You can't have 50\/50 equality when one of the candidates lies more than the other candidate." –@brianstelter<\/a><\/p>— Shoq (@Shoq) September 27, 2016<\/a><\/blockquote>