Quotes

[After moderating the first 2020 Presidential debate]My initial reaction was, 'This is great. They're going to go at it, and I can take the evening off. But you know, it became clear at a certain point that the president wasn't planning to back off and was going to keep interrupting throughout the evening

[After moderating the first 2020 Presidential debate]Lachlan Murdoch came from California to Cleveland for the debate, and we had a talk afterwards, and he could not have been more supportive of the job I did

[After moderating the first 2020 Presidential debate]Obviously It was not the debate I had planned for, and to that degree I was disappointed. I think debates are about revealing what [the candidates] think. You certainly gained an insight into Donald Trump and what he's thinking and where he wants to take the country and how he wants to take the country there. To that degree I thought it was a success. It may not have been pretty, but it was revealing.

[After moderating the first 2020 Presidential debate]While I do think that there was a lot of worthwhile stuff in the debate, I had really prepared for a serious policy discussion. The interruptions got in the way of a substantive discussion of serious issues and follow-ups to those issues. I thought it wasted a lot of time.

[on President Trump's comment to the right-wing group the Proud Boys, should "stand back and stand by" during the 2020 Presidential debate]I think people will read into that what they want to. What was clear to me was he was given a direct opportunity several times by both me and by the vice president to call out the Proud Boys and white supremacists and he refused to do so

[on the changes the Commission on Presidential Debates are considering for Presidential debates on October 15th and 22nd]The idea that you're going to cut off their microphone - that's a pretty tough call. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to make it, so on a practical level I wonder if that's going to work. It just it strikes me as a bridge too far

[After moderating the first 2020 Presidential debate]Trump never went to Plan B. He just stayed on Plan A the entire evening, and I don't think it served him especially well