Rieder: A better night for debate moderators
Call it a moderator highlight.
Late in Debate No. 2 between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Sunday night, Clinton had used up her time but was still talking. Co-moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN tried to stop her, without much luck. Then fellow moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC News dropped the hammer.
"We're moving to an audience question," Raddatz said. When Clinton showed no signs of stopping, Raddatz quickly repeated, "We're moving to an audience question." When Trump tried to jump in, she repeated her mantra, and the audience got its turn.
Make no mistake, it's tough out there for a moderator. Candidates like to go on and on, and it's not always easy to stop them. (In fairness two minutes isn't a lot of time to answer some complex questions.) And Trump has a penchant for interrupting his rival, and is not easily turned back. In the first debate, there were periods when sole moderator Lester Holt of NBC News completely lost control of the proceedings.
But overall, I thought the moderators did a pretty good job in the second set-to. Sure, there were occasions when they were bulldozed, mostly by Trump, but for much of the time they kept things on track. Raddatz was particularly effective at restoring order.
And they asked some good questions. Cooper moved quickly to ask Trump about the elephant in the room, the recently unearthed tape of his stunningly offensive comments about women that had thrown his campaign into crisis. Clinton was asked both about her emails (even though Trump said she wasn't) and about the embarrassing excerpts form her paid speeches made public via WikiLeaks. And there was ample discussion of Syria, an important, heartbreaking and intractable foreign policy quagmire.
Presidential debate 2: How'd the moderators do?
Trump, however, wasn't a big moderator fan, at one point interjecting, "That's nice, one on three," complaining about the lack of an email question when one had already been asked and complaining of unfairness in cutting of the combatants.
Raddatz also did a good job of trying to keep the debate on course, at one point urging Trump to "answer the question," at another reminding everyone what the question was (it was about Syria.)
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As in the first debate, the moderators at times shushed the audience, since the debate ground rules prohibit any outbursts. But the warnings did little to prevent future reactions from the audience, made up of undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization. I have to admit I don't think the republic would be too greatly endangered by allowing some applause and boos at these events.
Rieder: A tough night for Lester Holt
Speaking of rules, I'm not sure any moderator short of Samuel L. Jackson or Charles Barkley would be too effective at keeping all responses at their required length and preventing all interruptions, particularly when Trump is on the card. Raddatz and Cooper gave it a good shot.
The next journalist to get such a chance is Fox News' Chris Wallace, who will moderate the third and final debate on October 19 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
Good luck, Chris. You'll need it.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rem Rieder on Twitter @remrieder
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