Key
moments of the presidential debate
Highlights
of debate clash include Trump blaming rival for many US woes
AN HOUR AGO by:
Barney Jopson and Sam Fleming in Washington
Donald Trump
attempted to paint his opponent as the author of many of America’s
misfortunes as he faced off against Hillary Clinton in the first
presidential debate on Monday night.
Mrs Clinton, on the
other hand, sought to portray Mr Trump as ill-suited for the
presidency as she battled him over whether he supported the Iraq War
or not and over his false claims that Barack Obama was not born in
the US. Here are some of the highlights of the clash between the
Republican and Democratic candidates.
Trumped-up trickle
down
Mrs Clinton argued
that Mr Trump’s economic plans would benefit wealthy individuals
like himself, rather than the broader population, calling his
proposals “trumped-up trickle-down” because they entailed large
tax cuts for the best-off in society. She brandished policies that
she said were focused on fairness and helping the middle class
through “broad-based, inclusive growth”. She portrayed Mr Trump
as a son of privilege, saying his start in business came with the
help of a $14m loan from his father. Mr Trump described the loan as
“very small”, adding: “I built it into a company that’s worth
many, many billions of dollars, with some of the greatest assets in
the world, and I say that only because that’s the kind of thinking
that our country needs.”
Politics v business
Mr Trump tried to
turn his opponent’s policy experience against her as he portrayed
Mrs Clinton as a representative of a failed political system that had
left the US languishing in crisis. Mrs Clinton, on the other hand,
cast Mr Trump as a cynical businessman. She accused him of rooting
for the housing crisis, saying he had expressed hope in 2006 that
property values would collapse so he would make money out of it. Mr
Trump defended himself by touting his entrepreneurial credentials,
saying: “That’s called business, by the way.” The Democrat also
played up her father’s ownership of a small drapery business and
highlighted stories of Mr Trump not paying his contractors. “I can
only say that I’m certainly relieved that my late father never did
business with you,” she said.
Trans-Pacific
Partnership
Mr Trump hit his
mark when he went for Mrs Clinton on her shifting position on the
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. He reminded the former
secretary of state that she had been in favour of the deal but then
had altered course. Mrs Clinton refuted that, saying she had hoped it
would be a good deal but that she could not support the final terms,
which she was not responsible for. “So is it President Obama’s
fault?” Mr Trump asked, exposing the awkward ground Mrs Clinton has
stood on when it comes to her trade policies.
The Federal Reserve
The US central bank
has repeatedly been on the receiving end of barbs from Mr Trump, who
has claimed without supporting evidence that it is doing the bidding
of Barack Obama by keeping interest rates low. He doubled down during
the debate, bringing the Fed up during a segment that was supposed to
be focused on taxes. The US, he said, was “in a big, fat, ugly
bubble”, in part because the Fed was “doing political things”
by keeping rates very low. “The day Obama goes off, and he leaves,
and goes out to the golf course for the rest of his life to play
golf, when they raise interest rates, you’re going to see some very
bad things happen,” he said, arguing the Fed was more political
than Mrs Clinton.
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Trump taxes
Mr Trump found
himself on sticky turf when it came to the inevitable questions over
why he was not releasing his tax returns. Mrs Clinton had put forward
a series of theories for why Mr Trump had not released them, one of
which was that he paid nothing in federal income taxes. “The only
years that anybody’s ever seen were a couple of years when he had
to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a
casino licence, and they showed he didn’t pay any federal income
tax,” said Mrs Clinton. Mr Trump responded, “That makes me
smart”. He later suggested that any federal income tax he paid
would be “squandered”.
Clinton emails
Some Democrats have
cringed when Mrs Clinton seeks to play down her use of a private
email server with lengthy legalistic explanations. She avoided that
on Monday night and instead gave a terse response when asked about
her emails while secretary of state. “If I had to do it over again,
I would, obviously, do it differently. But I’m not going to make
any excuses. It was a mistake, and I take responsibility for that.”
Mr Trump chimed in, describing as “disgraceful” the decisions of
some computer technicians linked to the server to invoke their fifth
amendment rights against self-incrimination. But on an issue that is
closely associated with nagging questions about Mrs Clinton’s
trustworthiness, he did not attempt to go for the jugular.
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Racism
Having spent years
questioning Barack Obama’s birthplace, Mr Trump sought to claim
credit for ending the controversy by declaring shortly before the
debate that he accepted the president was born in the US. “I think
I did a great job and a great service not only for the country, but
even for the president, in getting him to produce his birth
certificate,” he said. But Mrs Clinton seized on the chance to
portray Mr Trump as racist, saying he “started his career back in
1973 being sued by the justice department for racial discrimination”
because he would not rent apartments in one building to
African-Americans. “So he has a long record of engaging in racist
behaviour. And the birther lie was a very hurtful one. You know,
Barack Obama is a man of great dignity. And I could tell how much it
bothered him and annoyed him.”
Cyber security
The praise Mr Trump
has lavished on Russian President Vladimir Putin has created what
Democrats see as a vulnerability. Mrs Clinton sought to exploit it
when the debate turned to cyber security. “I was so shocked when
Donald publicly invited Putin to hack into Americans,” she said.
“That is just unacceptable.” Mr Trump, however, managed to shift
attention away from Russia by conjuring a memorable alternative
image. “I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into
the DNC,” he said. “It could also be China. It could also be lots
of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that
weighs 400lbs, OK?”
Isis
Mr Trump repeated
the tough rhetoric on Isis that has become familiar on the campaign
trail, landing some blows on Mrs Clinton, but also swinging and
missing. While the Republican has claimed to have a secret plan for
destroying Isis, he ridiculed his opponent for making her plans
public on her website. “I don’t think General Douglas MacArthur
would like that too much,” he said. “You’re telling the enemy
everything you want to do.” But he added a demonstrably false
assertion by saying: “No wonder you’ve been fighting Isis your
entire adult life.” He did better later when he said: “You were
secretary of state when [Isis] was a little infant. Now it’s in
over 30 countries, and you’re going to stop them? I don’t think
so.”
Women
Mrs Clinton waited
until almost the end of the debate — and the moment for parting
thoughts — to bring up controversial comments Mr Trump has made
towards women. “This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and
dogs, and someone who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to
employers, who has said women don’t deserve equal pay unless they
do as good a job as men,” she said as Mr Trump talked over her,
denying he had said such things. She went on to say Mr Trump had
called a woman in a beauty contest “Miss Piggy” and then “Miss
Housekeeping” because she was Latina. Mr Trump responded by saying
he was resisting the temptation to say something “extremely rough
to Hillary, to her family”. But he told CNN afterwards that Bill
Clinton’s “indiscretions” might come up in the second debate.
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