MSNBC's Chris Matthews: Debate Moderators Fair, Had to 'Take Crap From the Candidates'

Debate moderators John Harwood and Sharon Epperson defended CNBC's handling of Wednesday night's third Republican presidential debate amid criticism from candidates and party leaders, the Hill reports.

"There were a lot of conservatives before the debate who were urging them to go hard after the media, and that's what they did," moderator John Harwood told MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews following the debate.

"Some of those questions, especially considering the prescriptions they are offering, are questions that feel hostile to those Republican candidates," Harwood added.

Not only did Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus release a statement that "CNBC should be ashamed of how the debate was handled," but Danny Diaz, Jeb Bush's campaign manager, also confronted a CNBC producer about amount of airtime Bush received.

“I expressed my displeasure about the way the debate was managed and the amount of time [we got],” said Diaz, who declined to comment further, according to Politico.

Via Twitter, NPR released the amount of time each GOP presidential candidate received showing Bush with the least amount:

Debate clock: Rubio: 8:44 Fiorina: 8:37 Kasich: 8:06 Trump: 7:44 Cruz: 6:52 Christie: 6:30 Huckabee: 5:47 Carson: 5:28 Paul: 5:03 Bush: 4:56

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) October 29, 2015

Though on the eve of the debate, Donald Trump and many other conservative media outlets said they were expecting an "unfair debate," Harwood and Epperson shot back by saying that the candidates are obscuring the facts.

During the debate, Rubio battled moderator Harwood for mischaracterizing his tax plan and Trump battled moderator Becky Quick on never criticizing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"They are hoping that people don’t really care about the facts and I think they are wrong about that," Epperson said.

Coming in defense of the moderators, "Hardball" host Chris Matthews said that they were "totally straight reporters who had to take the crap” from candidates.

However, adding to the disappointment of the debate, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz chimed in by saying,"The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media."

"You look at the questions: Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, can you insult those two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?”Cruz added.

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