Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton trounced Republican Donald Trump by 62 percent to 27 percent in their first Presidential debate, according to a poll conducted among those who watched the debate. Clinton held the advantage on all fronts and factors considered including foreign policy, ability to lead America, knowledge of subject matter among others.
Both candidates jabbed at each other and reality checks by CNN reporters showed that they both lied and flip-flopped on a couple of issues.
Below is a summary of what happened as captured by The Guardian of UK:
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.
