DONALD Trump was the clear loser in his first clash with Hillary Clinton. CNN’s post-debate poll gave the Democrat a 35-point lead over the brash billionaire, the third largest margin in American history.
With the race to become the 45th President of the United States becoming closer than many had expected, the debate, the first of three, was box office, drawing an estimated 100 million viewers.
It was an intense, and often angry debate, with the candidates touching on taxes, trade, Russia, racism (his), and stamina (hers).
“Donald, it’s good to be with you,” Clinton said, looking almost genuine.
Trump, who normally calls his rival Crooked Hillary, asked if it was okay to address her in the debate as Secretary Clinton: “I want you to be very happy.
“It’s very important to me,” he said.
The styles of the two candidates were markedly different.
As the Republican talked and talked, he became more uneven, louder, and often unintelligible and occasionally inaccurate, his sentences ending in bizarre non-sequiturs.
Clinton clearly managed to get under Trump’s skin.
At one point Clinton mentioned Trump’s belief that climate change was a hoax created by the Chinese.
“I did not. I do not say that,” Trump responded.
On social media Clinton’s team shared a tweet written by Trump in 2012: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”
She mentioned the $14 million loan Trump’s father had given him in 1975 to start his business.
This was a “very small loan”, Trump replied.
Clinton accused him of living in his “own reality”.
He appeared to admit that he didn’t pay Federal income taxes and that not paying what was due was what made him “smart”.
When pressed on releasing his tax returns, the businessmen replied to say he couldn’t, blaming a “routine audit” from the IRS.
An audit as Clinton pointed out, would not stop Trump from releasing his records.
“For 40 years, everyone running for president has released their tax returns,” she said, accusing the Republican of hiding something. “So you’ve got to ask yourself, why won’t he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he’s not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he’s not as charitable as he claims to be.”
Making reference to the scandal of the former First Lady using her family’s private email server for official communications when she was Secretary of State, Trump said he would release his tax records when Clinton would release the “33,000 e-mails that have been deleted”.
Perhaps Trump’s weakest point was when he had to defend his role in the “birtherism”, the conspiracy theory based on the belief that Barack Obama was born outside the US and therefore not eligible to be President. It’s only in the last month or so that Trump has admitted the Commander-in-Chief is an American.
“The birth certificate was produced in 2011. You’ve continued to tell the story and question the President’s legitimacy in 2012, ‘13, ‘14, ‘15, as recently as January. So the question is, what changed your mind?” debate moderator Lester Holt asked.
“Well, nobody was pressing it, nobody was caring much about it. I figured you’d ask the question tonight, of course. But nobody was caring much about it. But I was the one that got him to produce the birth certificate. And I think I did a good job,” he replied.
Clinton said Trump was not able to easily dismiss his claim: “He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen.”
She added that Trump had a long history of racism: “But, remember, Donald started his career back in 1973 being sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans, and he made sure that the people who worked for him understood that was the policy.”
Trump accused Clinton of not having “the stamina” to be President.
Clinton responded: “As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world, or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee he can talk to me about stamina.”
US pollsters PPP’s post debate survey had Clinton defeating Trump 51 per cent to 40.
Perhaps more encouragingly for the Democrat the poll showed her winning over young voters, with 63 per cent thinking she won the debate to only 24 per cent for Trump.
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