Reporters Castigate NBC's Matt Lauer For Letting Trump Lie About Opposing Iraq War

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Reporters slammed NBC's Matt Lauer for allowing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to lie about his purported opposition to the Iraq War. 

Trump regularly claims in interviews and on the stump that he opposed the war from the beginning, and repeated that claim during NBC's September 7 Commander-in-Chief Forum. There is no evidence to support this claim and February reporting from BuzzFeed News showed Trump voiced support “for invading Iraq” in 2002 and termed it a “tremendous success” after the invasion began.

When Lauer allowed Trump to repeat the lie, journalists across the spectrum highlighted the falsehood and ripped into him for failing to follow up.

How on earth does Matt Lauer let Trump get away with the well-documented lie that he opposed the Iraq war without a single follow-up?

— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) September 8, 2016

I hate media-on-media violence, but Trump's support for the invasion of Iraq has been...rather well documented. No Lauer follow-up?

— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) September 8, 2016

Donald Trump was not against the Iraq war, just to be clear.

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 8, 2016

Trump, lie number 1: claims he didn't support the Iraq war. He did.

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) September 8, 2016

“I was totally against the war in Iraq,” Trump on Clinton's earlier statement. Fact check:not before it started. https://t.co/MYRdp4zaKK

— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) September 8, 2016

Trump says he disagreed with Iraq War -- not true -- and that he disagreed with Iraq withdrawal -- also not true. So great start overall.

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) September 8, 2016

Trump repeats that he was against the Iraq war from the outset.



That is not true.

— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) September 8, 2016

Trump lies about opposing Iraq war. Lauer lets it go. No follow up. Unreal.

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) September 8, 2016

Good job, Matt Lauer ... letting Trump get away with lying about his position about the war in Iraq. Well done, indeed.

— Jackie Kucinich (@JFKucinich) September 8, 2016