Donald Trump said Monday he thinks his opponents are “gaming the system” against him in the upcoming presidential debates, and said the best way forward might be to have no moderator for the events.
Trump told CNBC that criticism of NBC’s Matt Lauer, who hosted a presidential forum featuring himself and Hillary Clinton, is designed to put pressure on the debates’ moderators to be tougher against the GOP nominee.
“The fact is that they’re gaming the system,” Trump told CNBC. “And I think maybe we should have no moderator, let Hillary and I sit there and just debate because I think the system is being rigged so it’s going to be a very unfair debate.
“And I can see it happening right now because everyone’s saying that he was soft on Trump. Well, now the new person’s going to try and be really hard on Trump just to show the establishment what he can do.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates has already announced the moderators for the upcoming debates. The first debate is scheduled to be moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, and the second debate will feature two moderators: CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz. Fox News’ Chris Wallace was picked to host the third and final debate between the candidates.
The first presidential debate will occur in two weeks in New York.
