[DIGEST: Politico, New York Times]

Journalists around the country leveled heated criticism at NBC's Matt Lauer after he failed to fact-check Trump on his claim that he did not support the Iraq war during Trump's appearance on Lauer's Commander-in-Chief Forum. When asked for examples of what he has done in his life that prepares him to "send men and women of the United States into harm's way," Trump was adamant: "The main thing is: I have great judgment,” he said. "I heard Hillary Clinton say I was not against the war in Iraq. I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from 2004. You can look at before that. And I was against the war in Iraq, I said it's going to totally destabilize the Middle East, which it has. It's been a disastrous war. And perhaps almost as bad was the way Barack Obama got out. That was a disaster."