Three horrifying Trump moments
In the final presidential debate, the Republican nominee was downright contemptuous of American democracy
WEDNESDAY night’s presidential debate – the last, thankfully, of this cycle – was not a revelation, but confirmation.
This election is not about left or right, your team or mine, tax cuts or hikes, expanding or crimping the welfare state, Obamacare or the Ryan budget, a slightly more liberal Supreme Court or a persistently conservative one. It’s about something much more fundamental: the resilience of democratic culture.
Over three debates, Donald Trump has admitted he is a threat to the peaceful transition of power and the rule of law, and turned a blind eye to a hostile foreign power trying to undermine the integrity of the US presidential election.
Wednesday brought perhaps the most detestable moment in contemporary American political history. Moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he would accept the results of the presidential election.
“I will look at it at the time,” he said, before swirling off into a garbled mess of conspiracy theories about media corruption and voter fraud, punctuated by a bizarre outburst about how Hillary Clinton should “not be allowed to run”.
The highlight of the night may have been Wallace’s follow-up question: “There is a tradition in this country – in fact, one of the prides of this country is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign, the loser concedes. Not saying you’re necessarily going to be the loser or the winner, but the loser concedes to the winner and the country comes together, in part for the good of the country. Are you saying you’re not prepared now to commit to that principle?”
Trump’s response? “I’ll keep you in suspense.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s insistence that Clinton “not be allowed” to run not only makes one wonder who, in this world, would ban his opponents from campaigning for office. It also echoes his declaration to Clinton in the last debate that, if he won, he would “instruct my attorney-general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation”, even though FBI director James Comey insisted that no reasonable prosecutor would have brought a case against her based on the State Department e-mail scandal.
“It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” Clinton responded.
“Because you’d be in jail,” Trump replied. Overriding the judgement of the FBI and the Justice Department is not “law and order” – it is lawlessness. Petty dictators in unstable countries jail their opponents.
For the moment, it is only the case that Trump is petty. When Clinton challenged him on Wednesday night simply to acknowledge what the US intelligence community had concluded – that the Russian government was using electronic means to meddle in the election – Trump refused. Instead, he spoke about how Russian President Vladimir Putin had said “nice” things about him, how it would be “good” to get along with Russia, and how no one knew who was behind the release of hacked e-mails timed to damage the Clinton campaign.
Trump could have argued that the content of the leaks should be up for discussion, even if the source and its motives were suspect. He did not even do that. Instead, he said Putin had “outsmarted and outplayed” Clinton and that the Russian president did not respect her.
More likely, Putin considers Trump a fool he can outsmart.
Strangely enough, Trump’s best debate performance turned out to be his first – widely seen as disastrous – one. At least then he did not launch a full-frontal assault on the foundations of the country’s political system. – Washington Post
REPUBLICAN candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday would not commit to accepting the outcome of the November 8 US presidential election if he loses, challenging a cornerstone of American democracy and sending shockwaves across the political spectrum.
Trump’s refusal, which his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton called “horrifying”, was the standout remark of their third and final debate and ratcheted up claims he has made for weeks that the election was rigged against him.
Asked by moderator Chris Wallace whether Trump would not commit to a peaceful transition of power, the businessman-turned-politician replied: “What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense. Ok?”
Trump’s statement may appeal to his anti-establishment followers, but it was unlikely to reverse opinion polls that show him losing, including in key states that will decide the election. “That is not the way our democracy works,” Clinton said during the debate. “We’ve been around for 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections. We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election.”
Later she said: “What he said tonight is part of his whole effort to blame somebody else for where he is in his campaign.”
A CNN/ORC snap poll said 52percent thought Clinton, the former US secretary of state, won the debate while 39 percent said Trump was the victor.
In financial markets Mexico’s peso currency, seen as a measure of Trump’s prospects, rose to its highest level in six weeks at the end of the debate, suggesting growing investor confidence of a Clinton victory.
Mainstream Republicans were quick to denounce the comment. US Senator Lindsey Graham, a former Republican presidential candidate said: “If he loses, it will not be because the system is ‘rigged’ but because he failed as a candidate.”
Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard political magazine, tweeted: “I deplore what Trump said and refused to say about accepting the election results. Confirms one’s judgment he shouldn’t be president.”
‘Shocking’
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway yesterday defended the comment in a round of television interviews, saying he was “putting people on notice” about voting irregularities.
Trump’s running mate, vicepresidential nominee Mike Pence, said Trump “will accept the outcome” because he is going to win.
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine blasted Trump’s stance as “shocking” and a threat to American democracy.
In a debate that for the first time focused more on policy than character, the two candidates nonetheless lashed out at each other.
Trump, 70, called Clinton “such a nasty woman”, and said both she and President Barack Obama were behind disturbances at his rallies.
He said the Clinton Foundation was a criminal enterprise and as a result she should not have been allowed to seek the presidency. Clinton, 68, said Trump himself had incited violence, belittled women and posed a danger to the US.
Trump said all of the stories of sexual misdeeds were “totally false” and suggested Clinton was behind the charges. He called her campaign “sleazy” and said: “Nobody has more respect for women than I do, nobody.”
Clinton said the women came forward after Trump said in the last debate he had never made unwanted advances on women. In a 2005 video, Trump was recorded bragging about groping women against their will. “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth and I don’t think there is a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like,” said Clinton.
The two candidates also had a spirited exchange on abortion, gun rights and immigration during the showdown.
Clinton said she would raise taxes on the wealthy to help fund the US government’s social security retirement programme.
She said Trump, who Forbes says is worth $3.7 billion (R51.5bn), would be paying higher taxes too unless he can get out of it.
Trump and Clinton battled sharply over the influence of Vladimir Putin, with Clinton calling Trump the Russian president’s puppet and Trump charging Putin had repeatedly outsmarted Clinton.
Clinton and Trump walked straight to their podiums when they were introduced at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, once again forgoing the traditional handshake as they did at the second debate last week in St Louis, Missouri. This time they did not shake hands at the end of the debate either. – Reuters