Clinton, Trump square off on economy, race and more
Political rivals testily spar over issues — and who is more trustworthy
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of self-dealing and racism — and he attacked her long political record as empty and ineffectual — as the two rivals bared their deep personal dislike Monday in a slashing and sharply pointed first presidential debate.
The two differed — among many issues — over taxes, the state of the economy and how to mend the country’s fraught race relations.
Mostly, they clashed over the virtues of a career spent in public service, as Clinton has done,
versus the role of a political neophyte, like Trump, who has devoted himself to building a personal real estate fortune and fame as a reality TV star.
Clinton accused Trump of favoring massive tax cuts for the well-to-do, such as himself, in a return to the kind of trickle-down economics that led to the Great Recession.
“I call it Trumped-up trickle-down,” she said, suggesting it would add trillions of dollars to U.S. debt and pitch the economy back into recession.
Trump asserted she was wrong and said his plan would have a galvanizing effect, creating millions of good-paying jobs and contrasting that with Clinton’s “all-talk” approach to economic policy.
“Typical politician,” he scoffed.
The 90-minute session on the campus of Long Island’s Hofstra University was testy from the start. Within moments, the candidates began talking over each other .
Trump, who spent much of the night on the defensive, deflected persistent questions about whether he would release his tax returns by claiming he is under audit, something he has repeatedly said prevented him from disclosure. Lester Holt, the moderator, pointed out that there was no prohibition on releasing them during an audit.
Clinton accused Trump of having something to hide, suggesting a number of possibilities: he is not as wealthy as he says; he is not as charitable as he says; he has financial conflicts of interest he does not want to disclose; or he is not paying any income taxes.
“That makes me smart,” Trump said, interrupting Clinton.
But he said he would violate his attorneys’ advice to keep his returns private — and release them instead — if Clinton would put out the 33,000 emails she deleted from the private email server she used when she was secretary of state.
Clinton, who has spent the better part of four decades in public life, was unquestionably the better-versed in matters of policy and substance, and it showed as she repeatedly offered multilayered plans that contrasted with Trump’s vagueness.
But he repeatedly sought to turn her many years in public office against her, ticking off repeated problems and suggesting she had done nothing during her long political career to help solve them.
“It’s politicians like Secretary Clinton that have caused this problem,” he said at one point, discussing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
Clinton went after Trump’s business record, challenging his main credential, accusing him of filing for bankruptcy multiple times and repeatedly stiffing contractors as he built on the handsome financial stake his father handed him starting out.
She accused him of being “one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis” because it would help his bottom line.
“That’s called business,” he shot back.
Trump did not shy away from some of the more colorful and controversial things he has said during the campaign and throughout his history in business.
Asked about race relations, he repeated his depiction of inner-city life as living hell for Latinos and African-Americans. “You walk down the street you get shot,” Trump said.
Clinton said her rival greatly exaggerated the level of violence and downplayed the success and dignity of minority communities. She faulted Trump for advocating “stop-andfrisk” policies that were seen as racial profiling by critics and ruled unconstitutional.
“We’ve got to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system,” Clinton said. “We cannot just say law and order.”
The first debate of the fall general election campaign was preceded with a Super Bowl-level of hype and the audience for the 90-minute session was expected to approach that of the nation’s biggest annual television gathering, with perhaps as many as 100 million viewers tuning in.
Less certain was how many minds would change based on what the Democratic and Republican rivals said and did during their time onstage.
Clinton and Trump are scheduled to debate twice more, on Oct. 9 in St. Louis and Oct. 19 in Las Vegas.
Their running mates, Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, are set to debate Oct. 4 in Farmville, Va.