Rem Rieder

USA TODAY

Lester Holt whiffed.

In an extremely high-profile and widely anticipated appearance as the moderator of the first debate of the presidential campaign featuring Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the NBC Nightly News anchor was frequently bulldozed by The Donald Monday night.

Time after time, Holt let Trump go on and on, even when the GOP candidate interrupted Clinton, which he did frequently. When the moderator tried to intervene, Trump simply kept talking.

Twitter was typically merciless, subjecting Holt to a devastating barrage of ridicule throughout the debate. "I wonder what the debate would have been like if Lester Holt had shown up," went one tweet. There was rampant speculation that Holt had fallen asleep, or had understandably left for a cocktail.

The first presidential debate: Catch up on what happened

"This is Secretary Clinton's two minutes," Holt said early on in an effort to stop the Trump filibuster. Trump kept talking. "This is Secretary Clinton's two minutes," Holt repeated a while later. Finally Trump stopped.

"Wait a minute, Lester," Trump told the moderator at one point.

This is how bad it got: New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz posted a piece titled, "CNN launches manhunt after Lester Holt vanishes from debate."

Fact-checking the presidential debate between Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump

In fairness, keeping the proceedings under control was not an easy task. Trump likes to play by his own rules, and the debate proved no exception. He is a strong-willed and forceful presence. But Holt is a topflight news professional, and keeping things on track was his job for the evening. At times it seemed as if Trump had gotten his wish of a debate without a moderator.

There's an argument to be made that the moderator should just stay out of the way and let the combatants have at it. Those who hold that view largely got what they wanted. And while that approach hardly helps the cause of civic discourse, it certainly provides an unvarnished view of the candidates.

Actually, when he could get a word in, Holt had some good moments. There had been much talk during the run-up to the debate about the need for moderators to fact-check, to call out false statements. And Holt did some of that. When Trump said he would release his tax returns after the IRS completed its audit, Holt pointed out he was free to release them before that happened. He challenged Trump on stop and frisk, asserting that it had been ruled unconstitutional. He disputed Trump's claim that he had opposed the war in Iraq.

It didn't take long for Trump, Clinton to get feisty

He didn't similarly challenge Clinton, no doubt inflaming critics on the right. But statistics from the professional fact-checkers show that, despite Clinton's own very real issues with transparency, Trump is in a league of his own when it comes to being truth-challenged in his pronouncements.

But the overriding image of the debate will be Trump trampling Holt.

Someone suggested on Twitter that maybe Ice Cube should moderate the next debate. He may be on to something.

For Lester Holt, it's debate glory -- or torture on Twitter

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rem Rieder on Twitter @remrieder