Following the presidential debate, many of moderator Kirsten Welker’s colleagues at MSNBC called for critics to apologize to her.
Welker, a White House correspondent for NBC News who was selected to moderate the second and final presidential debate between President Trump and Democratic presidential debate Joe Biden, faced criticism from the president and many of his supporters before the debate. She faced allegations of being a Democratic activist rather than an objective reporter.
“Somebody owes our colleague Kristin Welker an apology,” Brian Williams stated in the network’s post-debate coverage, before handing it off to fellow host Rachel Maddow, who reiterated that sentiment.
“Yeah. She’s owed an apology by the president, who attacked her over and over and over again heading into this event tonight, trying to work the refs, trying to intimidate her. Clearly, Kristin Welker was not intimidated,” she said. “She is owed an apology, you’re right, Brian, from the president on that. But I think she is owed congratulations by the country.”
Maddow then touted Welker as the real debate winner.
“I think if there was a clear winner from this debate tonight, I don’t know who would argue with the fact that it was, in fact, Kristin Welker, who did an incredibly professional, cogent, coherent job. I mean, I realize our bar is low,” she added.
Despite the preemptive criticism from the president himself, Trump praised Welker’s performance during the debate.
“I respect very much the way you are handling this, I have got to say,” he said.
Days earlier, he said Welker has “always been terrible & unfair.” He has also called her a “dyed-in-the-wool, radical-left Democrat.”
