The former president has a habit of working the referees before debates, and then complaining about them if things don’t go as he hoped.
As former President Donald J. Trump sought to minimize the damage done by Tuesday night’s debate, selling his defensive, angry and frequently fact-challenged performance as a resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, he resorted to a time-tested tactic.
Just seven minutes after it was over, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that the debate had been “THREE ON ONE!” Then, in the spin room, he pressed his case that the moderators had treated him unfairly.
Across the years, Mr. Trump has treated the moderators of debates as useful foils, often working the refs by suggesting beforehand that they were likely to be unfair to him and then, if things did not go so well, pillorying them after the fact.
Here is a look back at some of Mr. Trump’s complaints about debates in which he was widely seen as coming up short.
Aug. 6, 2015: The first G.O.P. primary debate
On Megyn Kelly: ‘These ridiculous questions’
In his first Republican presidential primary debate in the 2016 election cycle, Mr. Trump was asked by the Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly to explain, among other things, why he had called women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”
Mr. Trump did not appreciate the question. Afterward, he promoted tweets that called Ms. Kelly a “bimbo” and that said she had “bombed” as a debate moderator. A day later, he complained that Ms. Kelly had treated him unfairly and appeared to suggest that she was menstruating during the debate.
“She gets out, and she starts asking me all these ridiculous questions, and you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever,” he said on CNN.
The shockingly sexist reference to Ms. Kelly came at the cost of a speaking slot at an influential conservative gathering in Atlanta, but Mr. Trump did not apologize.
Sept. 26, 2016: his first Debate with Hillary Clinton
On Lester Holt: ‘Very unfair questions’
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Read all Trumps reasons at
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