Should debate moderators yell ‘Liar,’ or is that the candidates’ job? | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Before Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump even take to the debate stage Monday evening, there’s a debate over the debate.

Should the moderators serve as a truth squad – a version of the “Crowley effect” – for moderator Candy Crowley’s 2012 debate performance in which she corrected Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney? Or should they stick to asking questions and not intervene?

Debate veterans say it’s best for the questioners to stay on the sidelines - and let the two candidates do the sparring themselves.

“Fact checking is best handled outside the context of the moderator,” said Alan Schroeder, whose book, “Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV,” studied the history of the national events.

But, he said, moderators should provide the candidates “every opportunity to call out each other’s inconsistencies and dubious statements.”

The audience bears some responsibility as well, Schroeder said: “You’re not just watching a game show and when it’s over you change the channel, we’re talking about a civic experience that requires follow up and contextualizing.”

Chris Wallace of Fox News, who will moderate the third and final presidential debate on Oct. 19, said he wants the candidates – not the moderators – to call each other on falsehoods.

“That’s not my job. I do not believe it is my job to be a truth squad,” he told his own network. “It’s up to the other person to catch them on that.”

He wouldn’t rule out fact checking, but said moderators who inserted themselves risked turning a debate between two candidates into a news conference. He’d “rather have the two candidates speaking to each other than speaking to me.”

Trump doesn’t want a repeat of what Republican strategist Karl Rove calls the “Crowley effect.” That’s when Crowley, during a 2012 debate, corrected Romney’s claim that President Barack Obama had not immediately used the words “act of terror” to describe the consulate attack in Benghazi.

Clinton wants to avoid a situation like Matt Lauer’s decision not to challenge Trump during the Commander-in-Chief Forum earlier this month. Lauer remained silent when Trump said falsely that he had opposed the war in Iraq.

Clinton ally David Brock unsuccessfully called on the Commission on Presidential Debates to reconsider the choice of Wallace, citing his uninterest in fact checking and the fact that former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes is said to be advising Trump.

Trump has also questioned the impartiality of the moderators.

He inaccurately told Fox News earlier this week that Lester Holt, who will moderate the first debate, is a Democrat. New York state voter registration documents show Holt has been a registered Republican in the state since 2003.

Trump said Thursday that he was opposed to a repeat of Crowley’s intervention.

“That was a very pivotal moment in that debate and it really threw the debate off, and it was unfair,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “You have to have somebody that just lets them argue it out.”

Clinton’s camp wants the moderator to play a more active role.

“The moderators need to ask substantive questions, factual questions and keep them on an even playing field,” said Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri. Clinton thinks the moderators “should play a role in making sure that the audience knows the truth,” Palmieri added.

Veteran moderators, though, say it’s the candidates’ role to pounce when their opponents twist the facts.

“It is the responsibility of the moderator to make sure the truth gets out, but the chief fact checker should be the candidates themselves,” Bob Schieffer, who moderated debates in 2004, 2008 and 2012, said at a recent forum on presidential debates at the University of Notre Dame. “The role of the moderator is to be a referee; it’s not to be a judge.”

Still, Schieffer said moderators occasionally do need to step in, particularly because there is “so much distorted and totally false information out there.” He noted that a significant number of voters still wrongly believe that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya – an assertion that Trump now says he no longer believes.

Fact checkers have been particularly critical of Trump: of the more than 250 Trump statements reviewed by Politifact, 180 were found to be either mostly false, false or “Pants on Fire,” the site’s worst rating. Of the 255 Clinton statements reviewed, 70 were found to be mostly false, false or Pants on Fire.

“My rule has always been to give the other candidate the first chance to be the fact checker and if he doesn’t pick up on that, then you call the guy on it,” Schieffer said. “You have to correct the misinformation, but you’re being unfair to both candidates when you don’t give the other one a chance to correct it first.”

Former moderator Jim Lehrer said at the same discussion that the sparks should fly between the candidates and had Clinton and Trump appeared together at the Lauer-hosted event, she would have had the opportunity to challenge Trump on Iraq.

Lauer “would have said, ‘Sen. Clinton?’ And she would’ve called him a liar or words to that effect,” Lehrer said.

“The moderator would never have had to intrude, both sides would be covered and the audience can decide,” he said.