Megyn Kelly on CNBC Moderators: Maybe They Were Trying to Unite Republicans

KELLY: “Wow. I mean for Reince Priebus to come out and say CNBC ought to be ashamed of itself. And let me start with you on this Howie. Because CNBC came out and said that’s what we get paid to do. Ask hard questions. That’s going to be the defense. It’s extraordinary.”
KURTZ: “Megyn, this was an absolute train wreck for CNBC. Many the moderators questions seemed to me to be snide, hostile, condescending, border line insulting. And let me just make clear, I’m totally in favor of tough and provocative questions. You know, as well as —“ [crosstalk]
KELLY: “Everyone here is.”
KURTZ: “— when you do that, sometimes the audience doesn’t like it, sometimes the candidates don’t like it. But a lot of these questions were not drilling down on facts or record or policy. When John Harwood says Trump, comic book campaign, or does he have the moral authority to be president? When Carl Quintanilla asked Marco Rubio, who had a good night by the way, are you a young man in a hurry? Shouldn’t you’ve waited a few years to run for president? It just validated what a lot of people think about the main stream media and this channel that’s affiliated of course with NBC News, that they cannot be fair to Republicans. It was a disaster for all of us in the news business.”
KELLY: “The thing is Stirewalt, and Stirewalt was in those debate prep meetings with me and Bret and Chris Wallace. We went over each and every question. None of these was a surprise. And to put them altogether, I mean that no one stood up and said, ‘Hey, you know, you can have a tough one here, and really a tough one there; you can have like a series.’ But to do a whole debate of punch them in the face, in the face, in the face, in the face, leaves a certain impression.”
STIREWALT: “Well, you can tell just how delightful they thought it’s going to be and how superior they were acting to candidates up there. And they just thought it was going to be the most-charming thing ever to go poke at these rude — and they’re going to have a fun, rude poking expedition. And guess what? They threw to switch analogies from rude poking which I don’t think it’s real thing, to football. They threw what they thought was a touchdown pass and it got picked off and picked off and picked off and run down for touchdown after touchdown. I know Reince is upset with the way CNBC did it and he should be because that was hot garbage. But they played right into the hands of Ted Cruz, they played right into the hands of Marco Rubio.”
KELLY: “At one point I started to think maybe the moderators were pursuing a Herb Brooks type strategy. You know? Like maybe they’re Republicans and they were trying to unite the Republican party by being the foil.”
STIREWALT: “Exactly and only one Republican tried to join them, and it was Jeb Bush. He tried to get in on the play to piggy back on their media attack on Marco Rubio and he got run over like he was being marched over by the marching band.”
KELLY: “How about personalization of so many of the questions: I, I, I — you heard Becky Quick  saying —- there was one when she said, ‘I too had student loans, Senator Rubio, and I can’t figure out the math of that. And Howie, I have spoken with The Economist. Back top Beckie — ‘our cause’ talking about working women; our cause.”
KURTZ: “You know, it didn’t seem like they were focused for the most part on questions that, you know this is supposed to be a debate about the economy and jobs on questions that most Americans would relate to. And it’s not just that they were so gotcha questions. They were so personal and the tone seemed so condescending. And by the way, also there were many points where moderators lost control of the debate so there was a lot of shouting and there were parts were they were just sloppy. So Becky Quick was trying to pin down Donald Trump on something. And he disputed the premise of the question. And she said, where did I read this? How did I come up with this? (Laughter) OK. You have researched it, you were supposed to pull out it, Here is the article, Mr. Trump.’”
KELLY: “You have your evidence right there. So if the person says anything that you need to show him that you can show him. This is where you said it, Mr. Trump. You said it on your website.”