Temperaments, racial sensitivity receive scrutiny
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Donald Trump aggressively blamed the nation’s chronic problems on Hillary Clinton yet found himself mostly on the defensive in their first debate here Monday night as she accused him of racist behavior, 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 delegitimize his presidency.
“He has a long record of
engaging in racist behavior, 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 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.”
In an earlier exchange, when Clinton said it was unfortunate that Trump paints a dire picture of the livelihoods and economic circumstances of many African-Americans, Trump groaned in apparent disgust.
The 95-minute debate at Hofstra University on New York’s Long Island pitted two historically unpopular and polarizing nominees against each other. The television networks were preparing for as many as 100 million people to watch, which would put Monday night’s debate in the pantheon of the Super Bowl.
The clash came at a critical juncture in the campaign. With six weeks until Election Day, and with voters in some states already starting to cast ballots, polls show Clinton’s summer lead has all but evaporated. Trump is effectively tied in many of the battleground states where Clinton had enjoyed comfortable leads.
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.
Trump, whose pugilistic aggression made him a dominant force in the Republican primary debates, began the first general-election debate with an uncharacteristically respectful tone.
But his demeanor quickly grew more aggressive, even bitter. He tried to portray Clinton as a relic of Washington and protector of the status quo. In one of his few dominant moments, he challenged Clinton on trade policy, saying the North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade pacts have contributed to the hollowing-out of America’s middle class.
“Your husband signed NAFTA, which was one of the worst things that ever happened to the manufacturing industry,” Trump said to Clinton. “You go to New England, you go to Ohio, you go to Pennsylvania — you go anywhere you want, Secretary Clinton, and you will see devastation.”
Near the end of the debate, Trump repeated his claim that Clinton lacks what he sees as “the presidential look.”
“She doesn’t have the look . ... She doesn’t have the stamina,” Trump said.
Clinton looked on with a smile, laughing.
She said that Trump had tried to change the conversation from her “look” to whether she had stamina.
“This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs,” Clinton said. Clinton accused Trump of postponing the release of his tax returns — something every presidential nominee has done for decades — because he has something to hide. Trump has said he is keeping his returns private at the advice of his lawyers because he is under federal audit.
Clinton speculated that Trump was “hiding” his tax returns because they would show he is not as rich as he says he is, or is not as charitable as he claims, or has debts to major banks and foreign entities, or pays nothing in taxes at all.
At that last suggestion, Trump scoffed, “That makes me smart.”