Trump allies move to stem damage from Clinton debate
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s team scrambled on Tuesday to stem the political damage from Democrat Hillary Clinton’s wins in early reviews of their first debate.
Both global financial markets and everyday voters in polls said Clinton carried the day in the highly anticipated showdown.
Trump’s aides tried to spin the night as a win even as a CNN poll showed that 62 per cent of voters who watched said Clinton won the debate compared to 27 per cent for Trump.
Risk appetite improved as traders judged that the possibility of a Trump presidency was receding, with the Mexican peso surging more than 2 per cent against the dollar as havens from gold to Treasuries retreated. Personal attacks The debate quickly got personal on the stage at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, on Monday, as Trump accused Clinton of staying home while he campaigned and Clinton questioned his wealth, charitable giving, and whether he pays any federal income tax.
Trump’s attacks ran out of steam as the night wore on, while Clinton saved some of her best lines for the end of the 90-minute session.
She batted back Trump’s claim that she lacked the “stamina” to be president and reminded viewers of some of Trump’s harshest words about women and minorities.
“She has become a US citizen,” Clinton said of a Latina beauty-pageant participant Trump once called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping,” and “you can bet she’s going to vote.”
Trump said that he could have made “nasty” comments about Clinton’s family but that he chose not to. He said afterward that he “didn’t want to do my final attack” on former President Bill Clinton, “on what took place with respect to him and his life and all of the things that took place,” because the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, was in the room. “Debates are fine, but I think what’s most important is who is out there with people showing that they’re not hiding behind a podium or in a fundraiser with donors or wherever they may be on many days off,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters in the so-called spin room after the debate.
Conway said Trump showed restraint in the final moment of the debate by not responding to his opponent’s “specious, gutter political attacks, partisan negative attacks about him and women” by criticising her husband while their daughter was present. “Restraint is a virtue, and restraint is certainly a presidential virtue,” Conway said. BLOOMBERG
PRESIDENT OBAMA AND SECRETARY CLINTON CREATED A VACUUM” FOR ISIS “THAT MAKES ME SMART” (ON NOT PAYING INCOME TAXES)
“DONALD SAYS CLIMATE CHANGE IS A HOAX CREATED BY THE CHINESE” “DONALD SUPPORTED THE (IRAQ) INVASION”