And while Holt brought up the birther issue, not one damn question about Benghazi. Mr. Trump should have brought that up, but we do have two more presidential debates, and I think there’s plenty to learn from when it comes to the strategy by the Trump team employed tonight. I think he had been instructed to be nice and steady. He should have been willing to be sharper in going after her. I’m curious to see your thoughts about the debate here in comments.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton clashed early and often at their first presidential debate Monday night at Hofstra University, as the Republican nominee spent much of the 90-minute face-off casting his rival as a career politician unable to bring change – and the Democratic nominee worked to tag Trump as an empty suit spouting “crazy things.”
Trump, toward the close of the debate, tried to undermine Clinton’s persistent argument that he’s temperamentally unfit for the nation’s highest office.
“I have a winning temperament. I know how to win,” Trump said.
She countered: “A man who can be provoked by a tweet should not have his hands anywhere near the nuclear codes.”
Meeting on stage for the first time after hammering each other from afar for months, the candidates did not wait long to take personal shots.
Trump reached back to the 1990s to hammer her former president husband Bill Clinton over NAFTA, which he called “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere,” and remind voters about her controversial comment from that era referring to some young criminals as “superpredators.”
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Tammy, you need to coach Trump for the next debate. Not. Kidding.
Totally agree, Shifra. As Tammy was doling out advice to Trump during the MST3K show, I was shouting “Yes!” and wondering how it was that his advisers didn’t emphasize the need for him to heavily focus on Yellary and much less on himself. If he gets the message before the 2nd debate, it’ll be a massacre. It’ll be terrific…fantastic…the best debate ever.
When Hillary attacked Trump on temperament, he had a decent reply, but I’d like him to add that his character is excellent also and that you’ll never see his aides taking the 5th before Congress or given immunity by the FBI, that’s a basket of deplorables.
Well, I’m still disturbed by what appears to have been a really bad performance by Trump. I’m worried frankly. He’s got what it takes to take her down. It seems he was unprepared or afraid of being viewed as a bully toward a woman. Wondering now whether this was a calculated move on his part to draw her out on key issues and give him enough rope to hang her with in round 2? Why else let so many obvious opportunities slip by? Thinking too that his supporters will hang with him regardless now that she’s clearly shown herself to be the manipulative fraud she really is.
VH, I agree with you 100%. I was disappointed in DT’s performance. DT wasn’t prepared and it showed. On the positive side HRC was a scripted politician and DT was an angry American channeling, how many of us feel about the direction of this country.
I am hoping that Ivanka & her brothers sit him down with a tape of this debate to point out Hillary’s technique. She set him up & he took her bait, rambled on & on about nothing important & defended himself for things that don’t really matter. You could see Hillary smirk every time he did! Thanks for TAM CHAT! I will listen to you Tammy in the morning!
If you ever watched a person represent themselves in court against a lawyer, this debate had that feel. However the judge (moderator) helps the non-lawyer. Trump needs to practice more in spotting opportunities to “debate” or “go on offense” and avoid answering questions meant to put him on defense. He will have an easier time to improve but he has to practice and study. I hope he learned that lesson.
I recall Trump being challenged (by the moderator, wasn’t it?) on whether the murder rate in NYC had risen. The NYT has posted this report, “U.S. Murders Surged in 2015”. However, it’s fair to note this is a nationwide trend. The NYC murder count is listed as having risen to 352 from 333 in a year, which is about a 6% increase. So the trend is a bad one, but crime statistics are still well below the highs of a few years ago. I think it’s fair to say Trump was correct and the challenge was wrong, although the elimination of “stop and frisk” would seem to be a small piece of a bigger problem and not a sole cause. That’s my mini-analysis based on the NYT article; they may have framed or jiggled the statistics to tilt the scale.
I was so annoyed by how the moderator was so biased against Trump, but only from a liberal perspective (but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised). I am probably one of the biggest Trump-haters there is, but thought his questions to Trump were ridiculous. If you are going to only ask pointed questions to Trump and not Hillary, why not question his conservatism that he so recently adopted, or demand that he prove that he is not alligned with Hillary and the Democrats?
I found it interesting also how Trump was the meanest person imaginable when debating other Republicans, but not so much when debating Hillary…
I just wish someone had given him a Kleenex.
I have to echo the comments of VelvetHammer and rosebud. I thought Trump did well and held his own in the first half hour but the rest of the time he ended up distracted and defensive chasing those bones that Hillary threw out there. The more he chased, the smugger she got. His Sean Hannity rant was especially uncomfortable and disturbing. It was sickening the last question that Lester Holt teed up for Hillary at the very last moment allowing her to spew all her “he’s a woman hater” meme leaving him no where to go or time to form a cogent response. I think undecided voters come away still undecided: with the impression of Trump being a defensive non-politician (but not dangerous) and Hillary as a slimy, arrogant and smug politician. Thank goodness there are two more debates…
It’s so easy to put Trump on the defensive because he prefers talking about himself at all times plus he can’t let anything go that’s about himself.
Trump looked washed out. Hillary of course must have been getting intense spa treatments and a boatload of vitamin shots.
It’s possible that Trump took the drugs to stay calm. It’s certain Hillary took amphetamines and the like to appear bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the moment; I’m sure she went crashing down immediately afterwards. Would have been interesting had the debate rules required them both to pee in a cup before leaving the stage. Or in Hillary’s case, just to surrender her diaper.
Heard Mike Pence this morning on CNN with Chris Cuomo. Pence was excellent. Of course, I later see the tweet from CNN that Pence appears to differ from Trump on climate change. Typical, no matter how good you are, legacy media will either pick on the one apparent inconsistency or make it up. Anyway, while still question Pence on principles/conservatism, no question that before the media he is a professional polished politician. No worries about debate with Kaine. Don’t think even Kaine pulling a Biden and mugging his way through the debate will make any difference.