page_title: Lester Holt
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Lester Holt / Career
caption_attribution_description: Dr. Holly Bamford talks with Lester Holt from NBC Nightly News about the "crisis along America's coasts" and the need to re-envision how we rebuild. The location is Ortley Beach, NJ.
context_page_description: Lester Don Holt Jr. is an American journalist and news anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC. On June 18, 2015, Holt was made the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News following the demotion of Brian Williams, making him the first African-American to solo anchor a weekday network nightly newscast.
  Holt is also known for his moderation of the first Presidential debate of 2016, and was praised for his role in fact-checking false statements.
context_section_description: Holt spent 19 years with CBS, as a reporter, anchor, and international correspondent.
  In 1981, he was hired as a reporter for WCBS-TV in New York City. In 1982, he became a reporter and weekend anchor on KNXT in Los Angeles, and the next year he returned to WCBS-TV as a reporter and weekend anchor. In 1986, Holt moved to WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he spent 14 years anchoring the evening news. Holt not only worked at the anchor desk but also reported extensively from troubled spots around the world including Iraq, Northern Ireland, Somalia, El Salvador and Haiti.
  Holt joined MSNBC in 2000. In 2003, he assumed full-time duties at NBC News, where he became a substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News and Today. Holt became a full-time co-anchor of Weekend Today following the death of previous co-anchor David Bloom. Until late 2005, he also anchored a two-hour daily newscast on MSNBC. On May 9, 2007, Holt was named anchor of the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News, anchoring the show for eight years before replacing Brian Williams as permanent anchor of the weekday edition. Additionally, Holt is the current host for NBC's Dateline. He moderated the presidential debates in 2016, and interviewed President Donald Trump in 2017, where fellow journalists said that he asked tough but appropriate questions. 
  In addition to his primary responsibilities at NBC News, he hosted a special for The History Channel about the 9/11 conspiracy theories, served as a sportsdesk reporter for NBC Sports coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics, and is the host of Dateline on ID, an edition of Dateline NBC shown on the Investigation Discovery network.  In 2008, he narrated a documentary regarding the actual crystal skulls on the Sci-Fi Channel.
  When Brian Williams took medical leave in 2013 for knee replacement surgery, Holt filled in as weekday anchor. In 2015, Williams was suspended for reportedly exaggerating a story about the Iraq War, and Holt permanently replaced him as NBC Nightly News anchor.
  Holt moderated the Democratic presidential candidates' debate in January, 2016, alongside a panel of NBC political reporters, as well as the first presidential debate on September 26, 2016. Presidential candidate Donald Trump said that this was "a very unfair system" because "Lester is a Democrat". Holt was at the time a registered Republican. However in 2018, he changed his party affiliation to independent.  After the debate, Donald Trump said that Holt did "a good job." Journalists also said that Holt performed admirably; for example he challenged Trump when Trump said that he originally opposed the war in Iraq, which was proven to be a false statement. The Washington Post said "Kudos to Holt" for making it clear that stop and frisk was ruled unconstitutional in New York, when Trump said it wasn't.
  In May 2017, Holt interviewed President Trump, where they discussed Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey.  Holt's interview with Trump resulted in extensive media coverage.
caption: Holt interviewing Dr. Holly Bamford of the National Ocean Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2013
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