Trump clashes with Cooper, Raddatz at town hall debate
Donald Trump argued with the moderators of Sunday’s presidential debate in St. Louis nearly as often as, and sometimes more directly than, he argued with his opponent. Probably due to charges that in previous matchups the moderators lost control of the discussion, moderators Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper interrupted often — scolding Trump more often than Clinton — and reminded candidates that they had used too much time.
The clashes broke out from the start, when Cooper did not let up when asking whether Donald Trump had actually done the things to women that he bragged about in the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape released on Friday night.
“Just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?”
“I have great respect for women,” Trump answered, “Nobody has more respect for women than I do.”
“So for the record, you’re saying you never did?” Cooper asked.
“Frankly, you hear, these things are said, and I was embarrassed by it, but I have tremendous respect for women,” Trump maintained.
“Have you ever done those things?” came the question again, with Cooper speaking over Trump.
“No, I have not,” Trump maintained.
Having finally gotten an answer, Cooper said, “Thank you, Mr. Trump.”
Over and over during the next 90 minutes, Trump questioned what he saw as preferential treatment of Clinton, at one point calling the debate a “three-on-one,” implying that both Raddatz and Cooper were siding with Clinton. As Cooper attempted to go to a question from one of the undecided voters in the audience, Trump asked: “I’d like to know, Anderson, why aren’t you bringing up the emails? I’d like to know. It hasn’t been finished at all.”
Despite his objections, the moderators kept interrupting, mostly to point out that a candidate had gone off topic. When Trump answered a question about whether he had changed his mind on his plan to deport all Muslims by praising Capt. Humayun Khan as a war hero, Raddatz said, “No. Answer the question. Do you still believe.”
At one notable moment, Raddatz, who has spent much of her journalism career covering foreign policy, began to debate Trump herself. The subject was Syria, and Trump questioned the “stupidity” of the American military’s practice of announcing that an attack on a city like Mosul is imminent. “Why can’t they do it quietly?” he asked. “Why can’t they do the attack, make it a sneak attack?”
“There are sometimes reasons the military does that,” Raddatz said.
“I can’t think of any,” Trump replied.
“Psychological warfare. It might help to get civilians out,” Raddatz said. Then Trump began listing the generals and medal of honor winners who have endorsed him, and Raddatz reminded him of the question.
“Tell me what your strategy is,” she said.
After the debate, the Trump campaign published a video criticizing the two moderators:
