The first presidential debate is in the can. Here’s a summary of what happened:
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump engaged in an occasionally raw series of clashes on topics from trade policy to the Iran deal to Trump’s taxes.
The Republican candidate came out swinging on Nafta and on, he said, his Democratic rival’s failed record of public service. His most aggressive attacks had Clinton appealing to “fact checkers” instead of offering rebuttals.
Clinton’s performance was magisterial. She slipped easily into the details of many policy areas – cyber warfare, community policing, paid family leave – that Trump could not touch.
Clinton also scored the biggest moment of wit, at the end of a long Trump boast about his temperament, which he delivered hotly. “Whew, OK!” she said when he was through, smiling.
Clinton flayed Trump on his refusal to release his tax returns, on his “long record” of “racist behavior,” on his lack of knowledge about the deal to withdraw US troops from Iraq, on climate change being a Chinese “hoax,” and on and on. But his best line was: “Hillary’s got experience but it’s bad experience.”
Clinton’s best line (apart from “whew, OK!”): “I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And yes I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And that’s a good thing.”
Clinton’s runner-up best line, in reply to a Trump charge that “we don’t have the money because it’s been squandered on your ideas”, was: “Maybe it’s because you haven’t paid your taxes!”
Trump lost altitude quickly after the first half hour, shifting from pointed interruptions to a more incoherent, sloppy pattern of interruption.
Trump tried to deny five years of spreading birtherism – the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was born outside the US. Clinton replied sharply: “It can’t be dismissed that easily ... He has a long record in engaging in racist behavior.”
Trump cast doubt on the notion that the hacking of the Democratic National Committee was Russia-backed. He said it may have been China, or bizarrely, a “400lb person sitting on their bed”.
Clinton said neighborhood security would come from community policing and getting guns off streets while Trump called for “law and order” and “stop-and-frisk”.
Clinton poked fun at Trump’s unlimited indictment of her record. “I have a feeling that by the end of this evening everything is going to be my fault,” she said. Then Trump agreed with her.
Clinton launched a last-minute attack on Trump for his insults of women. She introduced the world to Alicia Machado, a beauty pageant contestant who said Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”.
After Clinton attacked Trump at the end over his insults of women, Trump said he was resisting attacking Clinton on... something. Now he has told Fox News’ Sean Hannity a bit more about what he was thinking:
I didn’t want to say – her husband was in the room along with her daughter, who I think is a very nice young lady – and I didn’t want to say what I was going to say about what’s been going on in their lives ... I decided not to say it. I thought it would be very disrespectful to Chelsea and maybe to the family. But she said very bad things about me... it’s a disgrace.
Clinton has popped up at a student watch event at Hofstra. She’s thanking the student organizers for everything they’ve done. “We need to turn out a big vote here in New York,” she says. And in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Hampshire.
“You saw tonight how high the stakes are, didn’t you?” she says.
Asian shares recovered and the Mexican peso surged on Tuesday as investors seemed to award the first US presidential debate to Clinton over Trump, Reuters reports:
Markets have tended to see Clinton as the candidate of the status quo, while few are sure what a Trump presidency might mean for US foreign policy, trade and the domestic economy.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan bounced to be up 0.2%, while South Korea and Shanghai inched higher.
Japan’s Nikkei more than halved its losses and was down 0.4% by late morning, while the U.S. dollar edged up to 100.74 yen from a low of around 100.08.
EMini futures for the S&P 500 also recouped all its losses to trade 0.5 percent firmer.
The cast of early 2000s hit sitcom Will & Grace reunited for a special election episode released Monday packed with 2016 campaign jokes - mocking Trump University and joking that voters should support Hillary Clinton because pop star Katy Perry does.
A nine-minute mini-episode was put online just an hour before the debate on Monday, although the actors had hinted it was coming earlier today. As Brian Moylan predicted in the Guardian this afternoon, the actors - several of whom are known Clinton backers - are basically just doing the show as a pro-Clinton ad - but at least it’s funny. As always, Karen Walker, the sardonic troublemaker who is the lone Trump supporter, gets all the best lines.
“You know Donald is one of my oldest friends. I helped him pick out Melania!” she says.
They talk about immigration and Latinos, and Karen, speaking about her maid Rosario (who was revealed as undocumented immigrant during the show), quips: “She owes me, I sent her to college.”
“You sent her to Trump University! To study dusting!” says Will.
“It’s what they teach,” replies Karen.
In the show, Karen had supposedly shot at Rosario, but that just became a comment about gun control.
“If Crooked Hillary had her way, I wouldn’t have that gun and I’d have to use my cannon and Rosario would be dead,” said Karen.
When Will complains that Trump uses hateful language to talk about people, Karen turns to Grace.
“Did you hear what your pussy gay Muslim boyfriend just said?” she asks.
Will’s friend Jack stars as the undecided voter who is considering not bothering to cast a ballot in November.
“But does my vote even matter? How can one unemployed white fella registered in Pennsylvania make a difference?” he asks.
Grace attempts to appeal as Clinton being the first female president. But Jack isn’t convinced, saying he hasn’t heard “the one thing that will convince me to vote for one candidate over the other”.
But Will knows exactly what to stay to win over the urban gay Jack. “Katy Perry likes Hillary,” he says.
At the end of the “episode”, the words #votehoney appears. Votehoney.com redirects viewers straight to hillaryclinton.com.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a government agency. It does not endorse political candidates. A group of former customs officials endorsed Trump just before the debate.
Trump on the Iran nuclear deal: “One of the worst deals ever made by any country in history.” He said $400m in cash was part of that deal – and Clinton was responsible.
Clinton had nothing to do with the delivery of $400m to Iran as part of a settlement for a failed arms deal that Tehran’s pre-revolutionary government had made with the US in the 1970s.
The State Department under John Kerry has admitted, however, that it wanted to use that money as “leverage” to secure the sailors’ release, although its transfer had been mediated through an international court. The money was delivered as foreign currency because US law bars any transaction in US dollars and sanctions make bank transactions difficult.
The US is not giving any of its own money to Iran as part of an international nuclear arms deal meant to prevent the construction of weapons. The deal gradually unfreezes assets that belong to Iran but were frozen under sanctions related to the nation’s nuclear program. Sanctions related to human rights, terrorism and other issues remain in place and still lock Iran out of billions.
Trump’s guess of how much Iran will benefit by unfrozen assets is far higher than most experts’ estimates, though not inconceivable. Treasury secretary Jack Lew has put the number at $56bn, and Iranian officials have said $32bn and $100bn. Independent economists have calculated that Iran will free up anything between $30bn to $100bn. Complicating the math are Iran’s debts: it will have to pay off tens of billions to countries such as China.
There is no evidence that the brief capture in January of 10 American sailors had any effect on the nuclear deal, which had been finalized five months earlier, although the incident rattled fragile relations between Washington and Tehran. A few days after the sailors were released, United Nations inspectors confirmed that Iran had complied with the deal.
What Iran does next remain an open question – subject to inspection by UN officials – and Clinton’s argument in favor of the deal hinges on a degree of good faith that Tehran will comply by the terms of the deal.
Donald Trump has questioned Hillary Clinton’s temperament, perhaps because voters are questioning Donald Trump’s temperament. A poll conducted by Monmouth University just last week found that 61% if respondents didn’t think Trump “has the right temperament to be president” while just 39% said the same of Clinton.
Trump says the Iran deal “was one of the first deals ever made by any country in history.”
Holt tries to move on.
Trump: “I met with Bibi Netanyahu the other day. Believe me, he is not a happy camper.
Clinton: “I want to reassure our allies in Japan and South Korea and elsewhere that we have mutual defense treaties and we will honor them... I want to on behalf of myself and I think on behalf of the majority of the American people say that ‘our word is good.’
“There’s no doubt that we have other problems with Iran... and Donald never tells you what he would do.. would he have bombed Iran?
“He should tell us what his alternative should be. It’s like his plan to defeat Isis. He says it’s a secret plan, but the only secret is that he has no plan...
“Are we going to lead the world with strength in accordance with our values? That’s what I intend to do... we cannot let those who would try to destabilize the world... to be given any opportunities at all.”
Trump has claimed that Nato must turn to a directly anti-terror campaign in the Middle East, and that his urging has already influenced the alliance.
But Nato has had a Defense Against Terrorism program since June 2004, almost a full 12 years before Trump called the alliance “obsolete”. In July its member nations decided to increase efforts against Isis, specifically, in Syria and Iraq, as its leaders had discussed for months. Trump was not involved.
Trump also claimed that his new Washington DC hotel came in before schedule and under budget.
Not quite. Per the AP:
A June 2013 press release posted on the Trump Organization’s website announced that the redevelopment of the old post office was “expected to start in 2014 with the hotel opening scheduled in 2016.” A few months later, the Trump Organization announced the expected grand opening of the hotel would happen at the end of 2015. The Trump Organization said in a third statement in 2013 ... completion was expected in late 2015.
In 2014, the Trump Organization went back to announcing the hotel would open in mid-2016. In February, in the midst of Trump’s presidential campaign, the organization shifted and announced the hotel was planned to open in September, “almost two years ahead of schedule, which is unheard of for a project of this size and complexity,” Ivanka Trump is quoted as saying.
And during a March visit to the site, Donald Trump said, “We’re two years ahead of schedule. We’re going to be opening in September.”
Holt moves to the last segment. Do you support the current policy on “first use” of nuclear weapons? It’s a bit of a gotcha question. He’s talking about no first use.
Trump blathers about Russia, then says, “I would certainly not do first strike.”
He says China should “go into North Korea.” Then he says Iran has power over North Korea. He’s casting an extremely wide net for this answer.
As the candidates debate “securing America” with a particular focus on the threat of Isis and each candidate’s stance on the Iraq war, this chart offers some context:
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Clinton quotes Trump as saying “you know if they taunted our sailors, I’d blow them out of the water...” referring to sailors taken captive by Iran.
Clinton continues on Trump’s temperament: “The worst.. has been about nuclear weapons. He has said repeatedly that he does not care if other countries got nuclear weapons..
His cavalier attitude about nuclear weapons is so deeply troubling... A man who could be provoked with a tweet should not have his finger anywhere near the button.
Trump:
That line is getting a little bit old.
Clinton:
It’s a good one, though. Well describes the problem.
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