Donald Trump's Revisionist View of the 1st Debate

He has had conflicting views on how the Hofstra debate went.

ByABC News
September 30, 2016, 12:29 PM

— -- Donald Trump may be out of the debate “spin room,” but he hasn't stopped spinning his reaction to the debate itself.

The Republican presidential nominee initially seemed to be pleased with his performance at Hofstra University Monday night, but his tune – and, specifically, his thoughts on the objectivity of moderator Lester Holt – has changed over the course of the week.

Immediately After the Debate

As he took the unprecedented move of stopping by the media room immediately after the debate, he answered questions from reporters lined up to talk to him.

"I thought Lester did a great job, honestly. I thought he did a great job," Trump told CNN as he walked into the room.

The Morning After

Hours later, on Monday morning, he called in to “Fox and Friends” and maintained that, overall, Holt did a good job, but he started to plant the seeds of doubt.

"I think I had some hostile questions, but that was OK," Trump said on Fox.

"Well, he didn't ask her [Hillary Clinton] about the emails at all. He didn’t ask her about her scandals. He didn't ask her about the Benghazi deal that she destroyed ... He didn’t ask her about a lot of things she should have been asked about. There's no question about it," Trump added.

"I didn’t think he did a bad job, but when you watch the last four questions, he hit me," he said of Holt.

"I thought Lester was really good for the half because he was bringing up general and main subjects that were important; you know, things like the economy and then at the end they start bringing up 45-year-old lawsuits," Trump said.

3 Days After the Debate

Trump has repeatedly called the campaign and the election process a "rigged" system, and he extended that criticism to the debate during a rally in New Hampshire Thursday.

"I had to put up with the anchor and fight the anchor all the time when everything I said; what a rigged deal," Trump said Thursday.

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