Clinton
v Trump: what we learned from the first presidential debate
The
candidates had several heated exchanges, as Clinton landed several
big blows including on Trump’s taxes and ‘racist behavior’
regarding birtherism
The
first presidential debate is in the can. Here’s a summary of what
happened:
Tom McCarthy in New
York
Hillary Clinton and
Donald Trump engaged in an occasionally raw series of clashes on
topics from trade policy to the Iran deal to Trump’s taxes.
The Republican
candidate came out swinging on Nafta and on, he said, his Democratic
rival’s failed record of public service. His most aggressive
attacks had Clinton appealing to “fact-checkers” instead of
offering rebuttals.
Clinton’s
performance was magisterial. She slipped easily into the details of
many policy areas – cyber warfare, community policing, paid family
leave – that Trump could not touch.
Clinton also scored
the biggest moment of wit, at the end of a long Trump boast about his
temperament, which he delivered hotly. “Whew, OK!” she said when
he was through, smiling.
Clinton flayed Trump
on his refusal to release his tax returns, on his “long record”
of “racist behavior”, on his lack of knowledge about the deal to
withdraw US troops from Iraq, on climate change being a Chinese
“hoax”, and on and on. But his best line was: “Hillary’s got
experience, but it’s bad experience.”
Clinton’s best
line (apart from “whew, OK!”): “I think Donald just criticized
me for preparing for this debate. And yes I did. And you know what
else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And that’s a good
thing.”
Clinton’s
runner-up best line, in reply to a Trump charge that “we don’t
have the money because it’s been squandered on your ideas”, was:
“Maybe it’s because you haven’t paid your taxes!”
There were lots of
manterruptions. Trump also had the sniffles.
Trump lost altitude
quickly after the first half hour, shifting from pointed
interruptions to a more incoherent, sloppy pattern of interruption.
Trump tried to deny
five years of spreading birtherism – the conspiracy theory that
Barack Obama was born outside the US. Clinton replied sharply: “It
can’t be dismissed that easily ... He has a long record in engaging
in racist behavior.”
Trump cast doubt on
the notion that the hacking of the Democratic National Committee was
Russia-backed. He said it may have been China or, bizarrely, a “400lb
person sitting on their bed”.
Clinton said
neighborhood security would come from community policing and getting
guns off streets while Trump called for “law and order” and
“stop-and-frisk”.
Clinton poked fun at
Trump’s unlimited indictment of her record. “I have a feeling
that by the end of this evening everything is going to be my fault,”
she said. Then Trump agreed with her.
Clinton launched a
last-minute attack on Trump for his insults of women. She introduced
the world to Alicia Machado, a beauty pageant contestant who said
Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”
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