What Happened To Lester Holt? Debate Moderator Criticized As Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Sparred

Less than 12 hours after praising presidential debate moderator Lester Holt, telling reporters he did "a great job," Republican nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday morning is calling the “NBC Nightly News” anchor's questions "unfair." Trump and Hillary Clinton engaged in a heated conversation in which Holt's behavior during the debate was heavily criticized.

While some thought he was too lax, others felt he interfered too much. Some viewers felt as if he took Clinton’s side on many topics. It seemed like Trump may have felt the same as the Republican candidate awkwardly paused before shaking Holt’s hand at the end of the debate, BBC reported Tuesday.

Trump was not shy about his dislike of the moderator’s topic of questions. However, it should be noted that Clinton’s email scandal was briefly discussed. During that time, she admitted to her mistakes and expressed that if given another opportunity, she would have done things differently. Trump interrupted the Democratic candidate several times during the debate, prompting Holt to say, "This is Secretary Clinton's two minutes, please." Still, Trump would continue to comment and even chimed in about the emails and said that Clinton sent confidential emails on purpose.

During the debate, Holt corrected Trump while talking about the controversial stop-and-frisk policing tactic. When the moderator reminded Trump that the act had been ruled unconstitutional, the candidate told Holt he was wrong. However, Holt countered saying that it was indeed unconstitutional and considered racial profiling.

"I think Holt has done an excellent job. Has been firm and fair, called Trump on statements more than Hillary but spent most of his efforts steering the conversation / debate to the two candidates," CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno said.

"Lester Holt interrupted Mr. Trump more, he followed up with Mr. Trump more, he was much hard on Mr. Trump," Trump’s senior advisor Boris Epshteyn said. "Lester Holt, to a degree, succumbed to the pressure from the left wing media and the Democrats after Matt Lauer moderated the forum."

Although he did tell the media that he thought Holt did “a great job,” Trump later on Twitter criticized Holt’s choice of questioning. He tweeted, “Nothing on emails. Nothing on the corrupt Clinton Foundation. And nothing on #Benghazi.” The next morning, Trump called into Fox News and spoke about the debate. He told the hosts, "I thought he was fine. I mean, nothing outstanding. He gave me very unfair questions at the end - the last three, four questions - but I'm not complaining about that."

While Trump previously called the moderator a Democrat, Holt is actually a registered Republican.