*At the time, President Trump blamed the delay on audio problems. -Lemon told Axios, “There were audio problems, but they were resolved very quickly.” “The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage when he had agreed to go on. He did not want to be fact-checked, but we could not let him on the stage without fact-checking,” Lemon said. Behind the scenes: The stalemate was so prolonged that NABJ leaders were prepared to explain to the audience of nearly 2,000 people why Trump would not appear. "I was prepared to go on stage to craft a statement, saying he decided not to go on stage because of fact-checking… we couldn’t compromise on that. As Lemon was preparing that statement, Trump walked onto the stage.