Attacks fly in presidential debate
Donald Trump aggressively blamed the nation’s chronic problems on Hillary Clinton yet found himself mostly on the defensive in their first debate yesterday as she accused him of racist behaviour, hiding potential conflicts of interest and ‘‘stiffing’’ those who helped build his business empire.
After circling each other for months, Clinton and Trump finally took the stage together for the first time, and each tried in a series of combative, acrimonious exchanges to discredit the other.
Trump, the Republican nominee, spent nearly the entire evening explaining himself – over his temperament, treatment of women and minorities, business practices and readiness to be commander in chief, as well as over his long perpetuation of a falsehood about Barack Obama’s birthplace to delegitimise his presidency.
‘‘He has a long record of engaging in racist behaviour, and the birther lie was a very hurtful one,’’ said Clinton, the Democratic nominee. ‘‘Barack Obama is a man of great dignity, and I could tell how much it bothered him and annoyed him that this was being touted and used against him.’’
Trump, who earlier this month at last acknowledged Obama’s birth in Hawaii, replied by invoking Clinton’s 2008 rivalry with Obama: ‘‘When you try to act holier than thou, it really doesn’t work.’’
The 95-minute debate at Hofstra University on New York’s Long Island pitted two historically unpopular and polarising nominees against each other. The television networks were preparing for as many as 100 million people to watch, which would put the debate in the pantheon of the Super Bowl.
Clinton poured forth with policy details and practiced catch phrases – ‘‘Trumped-up trickle down’’ to describe his tax plan, for instance – and tried to sow doubts about the seriousness of Trump’s proposals. She seized on his comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin to suggest that Trump does not understand the global threats the country faces.
Where Clinton was measured in her attacks, Trump was a feisty and sometimes undisciplined aggressor. He regularly interrupted Clinton, as well as the moderator, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, and raised his voice. At times, Trump delivered rambling, heated and defensive answers.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Trump vehemently denied he had supported the Iraq War at the outset, as Clinton had, while Clinton looked on incredulously. Trump sought to blame Clinton for the growth of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, snapping, ‘‘You were secretary of state when it was a little infant.’’
Clinton mocked Trump’s discussion of national security, suggesting he is uninformed and even unstable. ‘‘Whoo,’’ she said with a laugh, when Trump finished one oration about Nato and the Islamic State.
Earlier, Trump grew visibly frustrated by Clinton’s critique of his economic plan and declared: ‘‘Typical politician. All talk. No action. Sounds good. Doesn’t work. Never gonna happen. Our country is suffering because people like Secretary Clinton have made such bad decisions in terms of our jobs, in terms of what’s going on.’’
Trump, whose pugilistic aggression made him a dominant force in the Republican primary debates, began the first generalelection debate with an uncharacteristically respectful tone. He ditched his campaign trail nickname of ‘‘Crooked Hillary’’ to call his opponent ‘‘Secretary Clinton.’’ ‘‘Is that OK?’’ he asked her.