CLINTON, TRUMP FACE OFF
Local lawmakers react to debate, weigh in on race
ALBANY >> The first of three debates between Donald Trump, 70, and Hillary Clinton, who turns 69 next month, went off on Long Island on Monday night without a meltdown, a blowup or a senior moment.
The 90 minutes of fierce but mostly harmless jabs by two New Yorkers seemed to suit the online pundits and pols just fine.
“I really enjoyed the debate last night,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “Crooked Hillary says she is going to do so many things. Why hasn’t she done them in her last 30 years?”
“The #1 trend on Twitter right now is #TrumpWon thank you!” he added a few minutes later.
“‘I have a winning temperament.’ —Donald Trump last night - Really?,” Clinton tweeted earlier, using the hashtag #shewon.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, mired in a corruption scandal involving some of his inner circle of aides, had little to say at a post-debate rally held at Hofstra University. “We have a little pride that we were a big stop along her road,” he said before introducing Clinton.
He attended the debate with his live-in companion, TV host Sandra Lee.
Cuomo’s only post-debate comment on Twitter was limited to “I’m with her,” one of Clinton’s campaign slogans. He didn’t talk to reporters after the event.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also used the same phrase in noting the history made at Hofstra University, the debate host. “@HofstraU stage held 1st black candidate for POTUS (President Obama) 8 yrs ago,” he wrote on his personal Twitter account. “Today, history is made again, with @HillaryClinton as 1st woman.”
“What a debate!” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrote on Facebook. “Tonight Hillary Clinton truly showed why she is the best choice to be our next President! Hillary has the experience, the temperament & the progressive values we need to lead our nation and build a stronger economic future for all our families.”
“Tonight, Hillary Clinton once again showed the American people that she is uniquely qualified and prepared to be our next President,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney wrote on her page.
One of New York’s most seasoned pundits, Marist College pollster Lee Miringoff said Clinton was better prepared than Trump, but Trump scored points when it came to portraying himself as the political outsider in the race.
“Spin room is so last century,” Miringoff posted on Twitter, referring to the room where reporters get reaction to the debate. “Social media is where the analysis is playing out.”
State GOP Chair Ed Cox and other Republicans were not happy with how the debate was conducted by the moderator, NBC News anchor Lester Holt. “Unfortunately Holt blew it -- sad,” he wrote on his Twitter account, referring to Holt’s incorrect remarks about the legality of stop and frisk.
“If I were Donald Trump I wouldn’t participate in another debate unless I was promised that the journalist would act like a journalist and not an incorrect, ignorant fact checker,” former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani told reporters after the debate.
“Lester Holt shows he doesn’t know the meaning of impartial,” Onondaga County GOP Chair Tom Dadey wrote on Twitter.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio rebutted Trump’s remarks on crime. “In NYC, crime is down...and so is stop-and-frisk,” he posted on his Twitter account as soon as the debate ended.
More debates are scheduled for October 4 in Virginia for vice president and on October 9 in St. Louis, and October 19 in Las Vegas for the presidential candidates.