NEW YORK (TIP): Democrat Hillary Clinton on September 26, defeated Republican Donald Trump in the first presidential debate, 62% to 27%.
Clinton and Trump took to the stage at Hofstra University on Long Island, Monday, September 26 to begin their first presidential debate and sparred over jobs, taxes, the Islamic State, guns and the former secretary of state’s undisclosed emails, media reports said.
Moderator Leslie Holt of NBC News opened the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University, Long Island, New York, with the first topic, “Achieving Prosperity” where the first question about putting money back into Americans’ pockets and creating jobs was directed to Clinton, CNN reported.
Clinton, the first woman to represent a major US party in the presidential race, mentioned her granddaughter’s birthday, and talked about everything from gender pay gaps to paid family leave, to presidential temperament.
Trump gave a classic answer about China and Mexico stealing American business and jobs.
“We have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us, we have to stop companies from leaving the United States,” he added.
Clinton also called on Trump to apologies to people who have worked on the real estate mogul’s properties and have not been paid in full, Politico reported.
Do “the thousands of people that you have stiffed over the course of your business not deserve some kind of apology from someone who has taken their labor, taken the goods that they’ve produced and then refused to pay them?” Clinton questioned her rival.
“I can only say that I’m certainly relieved that my late father never did business with you.”
Following Trump’s opening remarks about reducing taxes, Holt asked Clinton to defend her plan to increase taxes.
Regarding tax returns, Trump said “I will release my tax returns – against my lawyer’s wishes – when she releases her 33,000 emails that have been deleted.”
Clinton responded by saying that there was something “really important, maybe even terrible that he’s trying to hide,” Politico reported.
“Maybe he doesn’t want the American public, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid no federal taxes,” Clinton said.
Clinton also admitted that she “made a mistake” about her use of a private email server while at the State Department.
Trump went on to blame Clinton for the rise of the ISIS by noting the Democrat had laid out some of her plans on her website.
“You’re telling the enemy everything you want to do,” Trump said as Clinton shook her head in amusement. “No wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life.”
Moderator Holt brought up the recent fatal police shootings of African-American men and asked about healing along lines of race and racism.
“Unfortunately, race often determines too much,” Hillary said, adding “We have to restore trust between communities and the police… everyone should be respected by the law and everyone should respect the law.”
Trump said the country needed law and order. “African Americans and Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street you get shot,” he added.
Clinton called for gun control in the US, saying “We’ve got too many military-style weapons on the streets. In a lot of places, our police are outgunned… we need to keep guns out of the hands of those who could do harm.”
The debate was divided into 6 segments with 15 minutes given to each nominee. Two minutes were allotted to answer a question asked by the moderator, two minutes to reply and the remaining time for the nominees to debate.
The polls clearly found Hillary Clinton a winner in the debate. Two reputable polls released Wednesday showed that respondents thought Hillary Clinton won Monday night’s debate by a wide margin.
An NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll found that 52 percent of respondents thought Clinton won, to 21 percent who thought that Trump came out ahead.
Another from Reuters/Ipsos found that 56 percent of respondents thought Clinton won, to 26 percent who declared victory for Trump.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump complained about every part of the first presidential debate, from his opponent to the moderator to the subsequent poll results, during a Thursday campaign appearance.
“I had to put up with the anchor and fight the anchor all the time on everything I said,” Trump said of the debate’s moderator, Lester Holt, at a rally in Bedford, New Hampshire. “What a rigged deal.”This was the 20th US presidential debate and wasorganized by the Commission on Presidential Debates.