Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani slammed Lester Holt, the moderator of the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, afterwards, then again during an appearance on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program the next morning.
After the debate, Politico reported Giuliani said the GOP nominee should refuse to appear at the next two debates unless he gets a guarantee that the moderator will not be a fact-checker.
"If I were Donald Trump, I wouldn't participate in another debate unless I was promised that the journalist would act like a journalist and not an incorrect, ignorant fact-checker," Giuliani said.
The former mayor was referencing Holt's claim during the debate that "stop and frisk was ruled unconstitutional in New York."
Giuliani elaborated during his appearance on Fox News the next morning.
"Terry vs. The United States is the law of the land by the Supreme Court of the United States. It has never been reversed and we do stop-and-frisk in New York and all over America."
The law was "unconstitutional as applied" in one case, in other words, "It was being done incorrectly." That case was later thrown out, the former mayor said.
"What I'm offended by is Lester Holt interfering twice in the debate, saying stop-and-frisk is not constitutional. Dead wrong. Hillary Clinton said the same thing. Dead wrong. Terry against the United States. Go read it. Written in 1958."
Giuliani excused Clinton on the issue "because she failed the bar exam." Holt is not a lawyer, but Giuliani is, and he said, "I'm not going to allow him to play lawyer and contradict our candidate."
"I'm a lawyer. I'm not a moderator who misrepresents on television," Giuliani said, to which host Steve Doocy responded. "You're really angry about this."
If a moderator must fact-check during a debate, the moderator should be correct, Giuliani said.
"If journalism has ethics, he violated the rules of ethics. If you are going to interrupt me, and you're going to correct me in front of a hundred million people, you better be right. He is dead wrong."
Holt also fact-checked Trump about the candidate's opposition to the Iraq war.
Trump's opposition to the Iraq war was one reason why Giuliani opposed him at first. "I happen to be in favor of the Iraq war. I'm still in favor of the Iraq war," Giuliani said.
Whether Trump won or lost the debate is not an issue for Giuliani, but Holt's behavior is: "You could think he lost the debate. I'm here to say what Lester Holt did is completely unprofessional and totally unethical," Giuliani said.
Holt should have done more research before the debate, Giuliani said: "The moderator didn't do his homework and the moderator is wrong."
When the hosts pointed out that Trump did not issue personal attacks against Clinton, Giuliani said, "He's a good man."
In another segment on Fox News, Trump said that he felt he did "very well" in the debate, despite Holt asking him "some hostile questions."
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