First presidential debate: Donald Trump would rather not be fact-checked by a moderator when he faces Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has made clear she expects moderators to flag falsehoods

Matt Lauer received poor reviews for his handling of Donald Trump (AP)

Donald Trump has said he would rather not be fact-checked or challenged on veracity for anything he says during the first presidential debate next Monday.

With a potential to draw 100 million viewers, the first of three debates could prove a break-out moment for one or either of the candidates for president who remain close in the polls.

Earlier this week, the Hillary Clinton campaign said it wanted the moderators of each debate to feel free to interject if they believe either candidate has said something factually incorrect.

A pivotal moment in the 2012 campaign came when CNN’s Candy Crowley, who was the moderator in one of the debates, contradicted Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, when he asserted that President Barack Obama had not referred to what had happened in Benghazi, Libya, a few weeks earlier as terror attacks. “He did call it an act of terror,” Ms Crowley said.

Speaking on Fox on Thursday, Mr Trump said that when Lester Holt of NBC News takes the moderator’s chair on Monday, he did not want to see that happen again.

“I think he has to be a moderator,” the Republican nominee said. “I mean, if you’re debating somebody and if she makes a mistake or I make a mistake ... we’ll take each other on. But I certainly don’t think you want Candy Crowley again.”

“She turned out to be wrong,” Mr Trump went on (an assertion that could warrant some fact-checking also.) “I really don’t think you want that. That was a very pivotal moment in that debate. And it really threw the debate off and it was unfair. No, I think you have to have somebody that’s just – let them argue it out.”

In the end it will be up to Mr Holt to decide how vigorously he holds the candidates to a standard of truth. He will, however, be keenly aware of the ruckus that was triggered by his NBC colleague, Matt Lauer, who was widely seen to have allowed Mr Trump to lie unfettered during a forum about national security in New York two weeks ago.

Specifically, Mr Trump used that occasion to insist that, in contrast to Ms Clinton, he never voiced support for the Iraq War. It was an untruth he had articulated many times before and it was hard to imagine that Mr Lauer might not have seen it coming. But when it did, he said nothing.

The fear at Clinton HQ is that something similar might happen on Monday. They are similarly concerned that, as was the case at the Lauer event, their candidate will be subjected to a far stricter and more rigorous set of questions from the moderator than Mr Trump will.

Ms Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, shared these worries with reporters on Wednesday. Ms Clinton, “thinks moderators should play a role in making sure that the audience knows the truth,” she said.

She also addressed the perception that interviewers tend generally to go softer on Mr Trump, who is a political beginner, than on Ms Clinton. “My biggest concern is not a view of any moderator, but just that people [adjust] their questions … to suit the candidate in front of them.”

Ms Clinton has been taking days away from the campaign trail to prepare and rehearse ahead of Monday’s debate, which will be held at Hofstra University on Long Island. There will be two more presidential debates as well as one matching the two running mates against each other.

While neither campaign is divulging too many details about their debate preparations, it appears that at Trump HQ they have far more casual, suggesting that Mr Trump will arrive at the venue on Monday expecting essentially to wing it.