Described as " one of the country 's most prominent political reporters during the 1960s , " Vanocur served as White House correspondent and national political correspondent for NBC News in the 1960s and early 1970s . He was one of the questioners at the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960 and was also chosen as one of the questioners in the 1992 presidential debate as well as one of NBC 's " four horsemen , " its floor reporters at the political conventions in the 1960s — the other three were John Chancellor , Frank McGee , and Edwin Newman . While White House correspondent during the Kennedy administration , Vanocur was one of the first reporters to publicly ask Kennedy to justify the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion . Vanocur also dubbed Kennedy 's coterie the " Irish mafia . " Later , Vanocur covered the 1968 United States presidential election in which Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated . Vanocur , who had interviewed Kennedy on June 4 , 1968 , shortly before the Democratic candidate was shot , reported on the incident from The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles , California , for the entire night . On the final night of the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach , during a convention-wrapping Thursday night round-table discussion with his fellow NBC floor reporters in the vacated folding chairs on the convention hall floor , Vanocur suggested that the Republicans had " kissed off the black vote " in 1968 , a comment which caused a media uproar in the ensuing week
Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Sander Vanocur