Trump on Debate Moderators: ‘They’re All Democrats … It’s a Very Unfair System’

By Mark Joyella 

Donald Trump likes Lester Holt, but not Anderson Cooper—both of whom will serve as moderators in the upcoming series of presidential debates against Hillary Clinton.

In an interview Monday night on Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor, Trump said, “I have respect for Lester.” O’Reilly agreed, saying “I worked with him at Channel 2 in New York, and I think he’s a fair guy.”

Bill O’Reilly then asked Trump if he was comfortable with the moderators of the second presidential debate, which will be a town hall format. “The next debate, you have two kind of partisan people. Martha Raddatz of ABC, who I worked with in Boston. A brilliant journalist, but she’s a Democrat,” said O’Reilly. “And then you have Anderson Cooper. I think he does a decent job over there, but he’s a Democrat. You have two Democrats. Are you showing up for that?”

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Trump responded that “By the way, Lester’s a Democrat. It’s a phony system … they’re all Democrats. It’s a very unfair system … I’m not OK with Anderson Cooper, because I think he treats me very unfairly at CNN.”

TIME checked voting records and found Holt’s not listed as a Democrat. “New York State voter registration documents show that Holt has been a registered Republican in the state since 2003.”

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