--- title: Presidential Debates: Donald Trump Is Wrong on Lester Holt description: Republican nominee Donald Trump called first presidential debate moderator "a Democrat" despite public records that indicate otherwise. canonical: https://time.com/4501616/donald-trump-debate-lester-holt-democrat/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-20T18:40:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:43:05.105Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Inaccurately Calls Debate Moderator a 'Democrat' og:description: He's actually a registered Republican. og:url: https://time.com/4501616/donald-trump-debate-lester-holt-democrat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e99c4a487b267db/6988a4b8fb4eac442c88ef96/debate-moderators.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2087 og:image:height: 1174 og:image:alt: debate-moderators og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Inaccurately Calls Debate Moderator a 'Democrat' twitter:description: He's actually a registered Republican. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e99c4a487b267db/6988a4b8fb4eac442c88ef96/debate-moderators.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Called Debate Moderator Lester Holt a Democrat. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Sep 20, 2016 6:40 PM UTC  Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper, and Chris Wallace. Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper, and Chris Wallace. Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Sep 20, 2016 6:40 PM UTC Republican nominee Donald Trump called first presidential debate moderator, NBC News anchor Lester Holt, “a Democrat” Monday, despite public records that indicate otherwise. New York State voter registration documents show that Holt has been a registered Republican in the state since 2003. Trump’s comments to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, which were offered without any evidence to support the claim, are part of a time-honored tradition of alleging moderator bias and expectations-setting before a presidential debate. “By the way, Lester is a Democrat. It’s a phony system. They are all Democrats. It’s a very unfair system,” Trump said of the debate moderators. The NBC newsman, regarded by both parties as a straight shooter, is set to moderate the first debate on Sept. 26. Trump has not been alone in criticizing the objectivity of debate moderators. Hillary Clinton’s campaign sent out a pair of fundraising appeals off NBC anchor Matt Lauer’s performance anchoring a back-to-back candidate town hall earlier this month. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, who is set to moderate the third debate, is a longtime registered Democrat, which he has [explained](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001509.html) as a matter of pragmatism as a resident of Democrat-dominated Washington, D.C. Public records searches for the remaining debate moderators returned no partisan affiliation. Spokespeople for NBC did not respond to requests for comment on Trump’s attack or Holt’s voter registration. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4501616/donald-trump-debate-lester-holt-democrat/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4501616/donald-trump-debate-lester-holt-democrat/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Called Debate Moderator Lester Holt a Democrat. 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