Broken mic, biased MC, disadvantageous to Trump?

Republican candidate Donald Trump says organizers gave him a broken microphone during his first debate with rival Hillary Clinton.

Republican candidate Donald Trump answers questions from the press after the debate. Photo: AP.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the debate ended, billionaire Donald Trump accused the organizers of deliberately giving him a faulty microphone, according to Le Monde.

"I wonder if this was an accident," Mr. Trump emphasized.

In addition, the real estate billionaire also criticized the moderator for being biased towards Mrs. Clinton. The moderator of the debate was accused of only focusing on issues that were unfavorable to Donald Trump, while not mentioning Hillary Clinton's scandals.

Lester Holt, moderator of the first Trump-Clinton debate. Photo: NBC.

Lester Holt, 57, is a famous American journalist who has worked for major programs such as Dateline NBC, Today. His current role is as the host of NBC Nightly News, attracting millions of viewers every night.

He was accused of political bias a week before the debate. Mr Trump called him a Democrat and complained about “the unfair system”. But a check of voter records showed Mr Holt was actually a registered Republican.

Heat Street commented that in the debate, Mr. Trump not only had to confront Mrs. Clinton, but also Mr. Holt.

The site wrote that Mr. Holt did not ask about Mrs. Clinton's email scandal, the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya when she was US Secretary of State, and the Clinton Foundation (Mrs. Clinton is suspected of favoring donors to the foundation).

Meanwhile, Mr. Holt has repeatedly dug into issues that are unfavorable to Mr. Trump, such as the billionaire's questioning of President Obama's birthplace, his opinions on women, his bankruptcies, his failure to release his tax returns, and a host of other issues.

Mr. Holt also tried to fact-check some of Mr. Trump’s arguments, such as the billionaire’s claim that he opposed the Iraq war. Mr. Holt repeatedly tried to interrupt Mr. Trump to interject, but was often unsuccessful.

Near the end of the debate, Holt asked Trump what he meant when he said Clinton was “unpresidential.” Holt did so after noting that Clinton had become the first woman to be nominated by a major party for president, which some viewers might have interpreted as an attempt to make Trump appear sexist. When Trump responded, Holt interrupted and then gave Clinton a chance to respond with points about the billionaire’s past comments about women.

"Lester Holt clearly favors Clinton," Trump campaign manager Tim Clark wrote on Twitter.

"Almost all of Mr. Holt's digging and fact-checking efforts were aimed at Mr. Trump, not Mrs. Clinton," said Fox News host Howard Kurtz.

Vox's graphic shows that during the debate, Clinton was interrupted 70 times, but Trump interrupted her 51 times, while Holt interrupted her only 19 times. When Trump spoke, Holt interrupted him 30 times, while Hillary only interrupted her opponent 17 times.

Number of times the two candidates were interrupted during the debate. Graphic: Vox.

"No mention of the email scandal. No mention of the Clinton Foundation being bought. And no mention of Benghazi," Trump wrote on Twitter after the debate.

However, when asked by reporters at the debate venue, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Holt.

"I think Lester Holt did a good job," the billionaire said.

According to VNE