If silence is golden, CNN can consider its Republican presidential debate on Tuesday night a success.
In nearly all of the previous four debates, commentators, viewers on social media and, of course, the candidates, have had at least some complaints about the format or the moderators or both.
But for this debate, the candidates had little to say about the quality of the event, which focused on the growing threat of Islamic terrorism and foreign policy more broadly.
Trump got into a brief but testy exchange toward the end of the debate with moderator Wolf Blitzer over the questions asked of Jeb Bush, which were repeatedly framed to instigate a back-and-forth with Trump.
Trump said it was “sad,” “very unfair” and done “in order to get ratings,” referring to the effort to ask Bush to contrast his own policy positions with Trump’s. After the debate, however, Trump told CNN in an interview, “I really enjoyed this one in particular.”
At a debate hosted by CNBC in October, the moderators drew boos from crowd at several points, apparently for a perceived unfairness or hostility in the line of questioning.
That only happened once during CNN’s debate Tuesday, when panelist Hugh Hewitt, a conservative radio host, asked the mild-mannered Ben Carson if he was “okay with the deaths of thousands of innocent children and civilians” if he were to lead the country through war.
The audience booed Hewitt as Carson pointed to the audience and said, “You got it. You got it.”
Still, criticism of the network hosting the debate was relatively tame compared to past events. During the first debate of the primary, which was hosted by Fox News in August, some viewers criticized the three moderators for playing an active role in the event, engaging in their own debates with the candidates rather than pitting them against each other.
But other than a few follow-up questions, urging the candidates to focus on specific issues, there were no clashes between moderators and candidates at CNN’s debate.
Criticism from viewers was instead reserved for the candidates and their performances.
“So far this debate hasn’t met expectations,” said David Catanese, a political reporter for U.S. News and World Report, on Twitter. “I don’t feel a sense of urgency. Mostly people marching in place with a couple of exceptions. (Jeb.)”
