"Any candidate who can't handle a tough question from a perhaps unfriendly member of the media probably isn't ready to stand up to Vladimir Putin."
It was a conscious decision to put the candidates in front of hostile inquisitors.
That reminds me of the Honeymooners episode where Ralph was trying to sell an apple peeler kitchen tool and he and Norton made a commercial which showed how bad it really was. Only the Republicans are stupid enough to try to sell a product by pointing out all of the bad things about it!