‘Let’s Not Go Down This Road’: Lester Holt Warns Audience Five Minutes Into the Debate

NBC News anchor Lester Holt warned the audience to stay quiet just five minutes into the third 2024 Republican primary debate in Miami, Florida on Wednesday.

After the audience at the NBC News Republican Presidential Debate cheered the opening remarks made by former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, drowning out Holt’s follow-up question in the process, the NBC News anchor said:

Let me just caution the audience. Let’s not go down this road. We’ve asked you to please, you know, keep restraining yourselves. That would be helpful, so we can hear the candidates, because these are important issues and the voters want and need to hear them.

Holt then asked Vivek Ramaswamy why he should be president instead of former President Donald Trump, which prompted Ramaswamy to tear into the moderators and “the corrupt media establishment,” and accuse them of rigging the 2020 election.

Once again, the audience drowned out Holt’s response with cheers.

“Audience, let’s not do this. Let’s not do this. Let’s let the candidates speak,” Holt warned.

Five Republican presidential candidates took part in Wednesday’s debate, down from the seven who took part in September’s debate: Haley, Ramaswamy, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Watch above via NBC News.