Democratic debate suffers audio snafu, and Trump pounces
The first Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign skidded to a halt for several minutes Wednesday night following a technical glitch.
An apparent audio snafu came at the one-hour mark of the highly anticipated television event, as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and NBC News' Chuck Todd assumed moderating responsibilities from Savannah Guthrie and Lester Holt of NBC and José Diaz-Balart of Telemundo.
As Todd posed a question about gun violence, some of the 10 White House contenders on stage expressed confusion — including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who asked: "Can we hear?"
"Everybody's mics are on. I think we have a, I heard that too," responded Todd. "That's OK. I think we had a little mic issue in the back."
"Control room, we've got contrary audio," Maddow chimed in.
Todd attempted to re-ask his query, but was unsuccessful. "You know, we prepared for everything, but we did not prepare for this," Maddow joked as the debate cut to commercial.
President Donald Trump ridiculed the broadcasters for the slip-up on Twitter, writing online: ".@NBCNews and @MSNBC should be ashamed of themselves for having such a horrible technical breakdown in the middle of the debate. Truly unprofessional and only worthy of a FAKE NEWS Organization, which they are!"
