The First Presidential Debate
Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both took part in the first of several presidential debates.The debate was expected to be one of the most watched in the history of the debate on television. Republican nominee Donald Trump came into the night with the momentum, as much of the talk going into the debate seemed to be fixated on Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton’s health. Clinton came out striking against Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns.I believe Clinton won the first presidential debate for several reasons.
First the biggest question going into the debate: Is Hillary Clinton healthy enough to run a nation? Clinton answered this question not with words but with her actions. Throughout the debate, Hillary Clinton did not cough, sniffle, faint,or commit any other actions that would make the media question her health. Trump on the other hand seemed to have a case of the sniffles prompting many to question his health. To conclude, Clinton was able to deflect any concerns over her health and deflect them on to her opponent.
One of the most important aspects of the presidential debate is the psychological aspect. Which candidate can get into the others head? In the case of the first presidential debate of 2016, it was Clinton. Clinton really broke Trump late into the debate. She began by baiting Trump on his support of the invasion of Iraq saying “Donald supported the invasion of Iraq.That is absolutely proved over and over again.” Trump responded saying “wrong” repeatedly. Trump also said that any suggestion otherwise is “a mainstream media nonsense” to which Lester Holt whom was moderating the debate said “The record shows otherwise.”
The next area Clinton dominated Trump in was her attack. Clinton began by saying that she was worried about Trump getting his hands on nuclear codes. Trump replied to this saying, “That line is getting a little bit old”. Clinton’s next attack was on Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin saying he supported Putin and Russia hacking into American communication. Trump responded saying he didn’t know if it was Russia behind the recent hacking of Democratic organizations, or if it was China ,or a single hacker. Finally, Clinton attacked Trump’s business tactics saying, “He rooted for the housing crisis”. To this Trump interjected,“That’s called business, by the way,”.
The next debate is October 9th and Trump has a lot of ground to gain if he has any intention of being president. Clinton, whom was leading in most polls going into the night just has to continue feeding off the momentum of the victory, if things continue to move the way their moving now we might be looking at the first woman to become president of the United States.There is still a long way to go till November and several more debates that are sure to be very intriguing.To conclude Hillary Clinton won the debate by dismissing any issues about her health. She was also able to psychologically dominate Trump and forced him to say things he might otherwise not say. Finally, Clinton was able to successfully attack Trump and raise several issues that could follow Trump into the next debate.
Burns,Alex,Flegenheimer,Matt.Did You Miss the Presidential Debate? Here Are the Highlights.The New York Times,http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/26/us/politics/presidential-debate.html?_r=0 Accesed 5 October 2016.