Trump vows to hit Clinton harder in next debate

Republican Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to hit rival Democrat Hillary Clinton harder in the next US presidential debate after she put him on the defensive by accusing him of being racist, sexist and a tax dodger during their first match-up.

Clinton blasted Trump again the day after a forceful performance in the first of three scheduled presidential debates ahead of the November 8 election. The New York real estate mogul, she said, “was making charges and claims that were demonstrably untrue, offering opinions that I think a lot of people would find offensive and offputting.”

Trump, making his first run for public office, praised himself for not attacking Clinton about the marital infidelity of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, during the debate at Hofstra University but said in a Tuesday morning interview with Fox News that he may take up the attack line going forward.

“I may hit her harder in certain ways,” Trump said in a telephone interview with “Fox & Friends.” Trump added that when Clinton criticised him for his treatment of women, he resisted.

“I was going to hit her with her husband's women. And I decided I shouldn't do it because her daughter was in the room.” Clinton brushed off Trump's vow, saying, “He can run his campaign however he chooses.”

Trump himself had a highprofile affair with Marla Maples, the woman who would be his second wife while he was still married to his first wife, Ivanka Trump. He eventually divorced Maples and married his third and current wife, Melania Trump.

The television audience for debate looks set to approach 80-million viewer record for such events set in 1980, early Nielsen viewership data cited by US media suggested.

Trump sought to deflect criticism of his debate performance, saying the debate moderator, Lester Holt of NBC News, asked him “very unfair questions” and that he was given a “very bad” microphone.

Clinton, speaking to reporters on her campaign plane, said, “Anyone who complains about the microphone is not having a good night.” There are two more debates scheduled, on October 9 in St. Louis and October 19 in Las Vegas.

Clinton highlighted what she described as Trump's downbeat message.

“He talks down America every chance he gets. He calls us names. He calls us a Third World country. He talks in such dire and dark terms. That's not who America is,” Clinton said.

She said that “the real point is about temperament and fitness and qualification to hold the hold the most important, hardest job in the world.” REUTERS