On Wednesday night's edition of CNN Tonight host Don Lemon said there are "new questions" about Matt Lauer's treatment of Hillary Clinton "in light" of his shocking ouster from NBC for sexual harassment. Lemon argued Lauer treated Clinton tougher than then-candidate Donald Trump in a forum where he interviewed both presidential candidates in 2016.



Watch the full video of the 'Commander-in-Chief Forum' moderated by Lauer in September 2016.



Read the transcript here.











"In light of the shocking ouster of Matt Lauer, there are new questions about his treatment of women on the air. I want you to look again at this exchange with Hillary Clinton during a presidential forum, in September of 2016," Lemon said before playing a snippet of the interview where the former NBC Newser grilled the Democratic presidential nominee on the U.S. drone program.



(Lemon would play several videos from the event: a clip of Lauer grilling Clinton on the U.S. drone program and another one of him questioning Trump on his position on Iraq and his temperament to compare the interviews.)



During the Wednesday night segment on CNN, the chyron on the screen read "Matt Lauer's On-Air Treatment Of Women"; another one asked: "Did Lauer Treat Clinton And Trump Differently?"



Lemon showed a tweet from Clinton surrogate Neera Tanden complaining of Lauer's treatment: "Another person whose interview with Trump was ridiculously soft and interview with Hillary was incredibly tough: Matt Lauer."



Liberal firebrand Angela Rye said looking back on the interview made her think of the way she, as well as women in general, are poorly treated on television, noting "cutting me off" as an offense.



Rye called the way women are treated on TV a "culture" issue that needs to change. Rye, a CNN paid contributor, called out not only her own network for perpetuating the culture but Don Lemon himself.



"I remember many of us commenting on that both online and just in conversation that it seemed that Matt Lauer was a little tough on Hillary Clinton. To me, I just thought initially at the time that he was dishing it to people that could take it. But now looking back at some of the other highlights that they pulled not only with Hillary Clinton but also with some of his co-hosts on The Today Show, I think it is interesting."



"I would say, Don, even on this program, some of the other programs on CNN, some of the commentators, some of the things they say back to women, like me whether it's questioning my qualifications or questioning my substance or cutting me off. It happens quite often, and I think, frankly, the culture needs to take a real shift in boardrooms, in meetings, in regular conversations, and we have to get used to not talking over people just because they may look different or because they're women."



Lemon said when he first saw the interview he gave it a pass, "but looking back" it seems Lauer treated Clinton "harsher."



"Initially, when I saw that, I said, because I was watching it live, and I said this not only about Matt [Lauer], because Matt is a smart man and knowledgeable, and there were others, what I said was, they don't cover it as much as we do here on cable news," Lemon said. "Every night we're in it for two hours, sometimes for three, four, five, six hours. The Today Show you do the first 20 minutes or whatever, and then you go on to do cooking segments and fun. Maybe I thought that just slipped by him. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt."



"Looking back he did seem harsher on Hillary Clinton than he was [on Donald Trump]," Lemon added.



Indeed the Clinton interview did receive media backlash. The New York Times at the time wrote Lauer was "sexist."



"This is stretching," conservative commentator Ben Ferguson said. "I never watched Matt Lauer and thought, 'Man, he's giving a conservative and easy day or giving Donald Trump an easy day.'"



"I think there's a lot you can criticize Matt Lauer for. I think this is stretching. I there's a lot of questions that had to be asked about Hillary Clinton because Hillary Clinton had done a lot more things in government compared to Donald Trump. Donald Trump took a lot of heat for things he had said and done and takes a lot of heat everyday. But I never watched Matt Lauer and thought, 'Man, he's giving a conservative and easy day or giving Donald Trump an easy day.' Now to be honest, I've never watched Matt Lauer and thought he was necessarily being easy on a Democrat either. I look for that stuff. I think this is now people saying I'm going to pile on because it's appropriate to rip on Matt Lauer today," Ferguson said.



"But it was talked about then," Lemon said, referring to criticism Lauer received for his interview style.



"Maybe from people that were true supporters of Hillary Clinton. Because if you talk to supporters of Donald Trump's people," Ferguson attempted to respond before he was cut off.



"No, no," Lemon said. "That's not true."



"Let me finish my point here," Ferguson continued. "If you talk to people that watch that are obsessed or love their candidate they're always going to think that if anybody is tough on them they were being unfair. I just don't see it. I think people are stretching on this."



"No, no. I don't think people thought it was unfair. I just think they thought the treatment was different, that it was harder on Hillary Clinton. And Maybe to Angela's point, maybe he thought that Hillary Clinton was a stronger candidate," Lemon argued.



"Well, she had a much bigger resume politically," the conservative said. "She had been a lot more tough interviews before. She'd be in the realm. She had a lot of tough questions she had to answer, it ultimately lost her the election."



"You don't think Trump had a lot of tough questions?" Lemon asked.



"I think Trump took a lot of tough questions from a lot of people. Maybe not what you wanted Matt Lauer to ask him. But, again, I think we're stretching to say, Matt Lauer was hard on Hillary Clinton. I think Matt Lauer on The Today Show on NBC was pretty nice to her."