How CNBC messed up Wednesday night

Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate became as much about the journalists who moderated it as it was about candidates who answered — or batted away — their questions.

The moderators, their questions and lack of control over the candidates jostling for air time became a central part of the debate’s narrative. And the shower of criticism that followed illustrated how powerfully anti-media rhetoric can resonate with the GOP base.

The debate’s host, cable network CNBC, gave them plenty of material. Moderators John Harwood, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla were under fire starting Wednesday night and stretching well into Thursday for their stewardship of the twohour debate.

They repeatedly clashed with the candidates while asking questions. They seemed to lack the confidence to challenge false assertions. They asked some small-bore questions. And they regularly interrupted the candidates or talked over them in away that contributed to a free-for-all atmosphere.

The audience was more akin to that of a daytime talk show, booing moderators and cheering when candidates sacked CNBC.

“The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R- Texas, to cheers. “This is not a cage match.”

At one point, Quick stated that businessman Donald Trump had been critical of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for supporting an increase in the number of visas for foreign professional workers. Trump shot back that the assertion wasn’t true — that he had not been critical of Zuckerberg, and that he favors keeping skilled workers in the U.S.

Quick seemed flustered and questioned her own research, allowing Trump to take control of the narrative.

“Where did I read this and come up with this that you were ...” she said.

“Probably, I don’t know — you people write this stuff. I don’t know where you ...” Trump trailed off as the audience applauded.

But Quick was right, according to a document Trump’s campaign had released.

Similarly, when retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was asked about his relationship with Mannatech, a nutritional supplement company that settled a claim of false advertising from the state of Texas, he turned the question onto Quintanilla, who noted that the neurosurgeon was on the company’s homepage.

Carson said it was done without his permission.

When Quintanilla followed up—“Does that speak to your vetting process or judgment in any way?” — the audience booed. “See?” Carson said. “They know.”

The answer ended the exchange— even though Carson has in fact had a long relationship with Mannatech, appearing in videos with the look of advertisements and delivering paid speeches at company-sponsored events. According to The Wall Street Journal, Carson started taking the company’s supplements after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and said in a video that his symptoms went away within three weeks of taking the company’s pills. The paper also reported that Carson said in a video that was taken down from Mannatech’s website that the company provides a good way for people to “improve their financial situation.”

The debate was supposed to focus on economic issues, and there was plenty of talk about tax plans, entitlement programs and other issues of substance. But some of the questions veered toward the small-bore, with queries about the candidates’ biggest perceived weaknesses, whether Trump is running the “comic book version of a presidential campaign” and even the discount retailer Costco.

Trump accused the moderators of asking “nasty” questions. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said they had missed a chance to ask questions of substance. Carson on Thursday called on his GOP rivals to help him end “gotcha” debate questions.

“You look at the questions — ‘ Donald Trump, are you a comic- book villain? ‘ Ben Carson, can you do math?’ ‘John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’ ‘Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign?’ ‘Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?’ Cruz said during the debate. “How about talking about the substantive questions people care about?”