A Breakdown of the 2016 U.S Presidential Debate — Hillary vs. Trump
You may have noticed your Facebook feed blowing up with news about the U.S Presidential debate — stock full of snarky quips, bizarre statements, and loads and loads of pundit’s analysis.
But why is the U.S Presidential debate even important? Haven’t the 2 been debating on Twitter all this while? The U.S Presidential debate is noted by pundits to be a last grab at the swing states and swing votes, undecided voters who often decide the fate of an election. The debate also allows both candidates to put forth their stances on various social issues at a date especially close to the election — a particularly useful thing considering all the flip-flopping going on this presidential election.
So to keep you up to date here’s an objective breakdown of what went down earlier today.
1) Clinton asked why was she a better candidate to become POTUS President of the United States). She claimed she wanted a better future for the Americans. That included infrastructure, jobs, closing the income gap, debt-free college, gender equality and the raising of the minimum wage.
Note: The minimum wage has not grown since 2009. According to reports, the difference in pay between the genders are attributed to the number of hours and jobs worked as well as maternity leave. Clinton’s plan is to make public college tuition free — not debt-free.
Trump similarly claimed he wanted to preserve existing jobs within the United States. He proceeded to criticise two companies, Ford and Carrier, for bringing jobs overseas. He described the dire situation as “Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio, they’re all leaving”.
Ford has promised that the shift will not affect the livelihood of these employees. They would be manufacturing larger vehicles instead. According to United States Department Of Labour, unemployment rates in Ohio and Michigan are at 4.7% and 4.5% respectively, higher than the national average of 4.9%.
Trump also said there were no people in the government who could defend the US from China. He also mentioned he would reduce personal and corporate taxes as opposed to his rival who said she would raise taxes on the upper class. According to Tax Foundation, after-tax income for the top 1% would surge to 16% while the lower classes would see their income grow by 1.9% or less.
Clinton proceeded to denounce Trump by stating he rooted for the housing crisis, which caused nine million people to lose their homes. The latter then retaliated, “That’s called business by the way”.
2) The subject regarding global warming was brought up by Clinton, and she declared she believed it was genuine, and also pointed out her opponent seemed to deem otherwise. Trump promptly denied the allegation, but past records appeared to prove otherwise.
A tweet from 2014 from Trump said, “…Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?”
3) Clinton announced her plans to defeat ISIS partially consisted of online combat, intensifying air strikes against the so-called Islamic group and to support their partners in the Middle-East.
On the other hand, Trump preferred to keep his plan a ‘secret’. Clinton interjected by saying Trump had no plan.
4) Clinton defended a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) statement against her by Trump, declaring she was against it once it was dealt.
Note: Clinton’s book, Hard Choices, stated that the TPP was the ‘gold standard’ of trade deals and seemed to be in favour of it, including “it would link markets throughout Asia and the Americas, lowering trade barriers while raising standards on labour, the environment, and intellectual property.” She had, however, only shifted her position on it when facing former candidate, Bernie Sanders.
5) Trump accused Clinton of having no plans. Clinton responded by requesting Trump to get her new book titled “Stronger Together” at the nearby ‘airport’.
Note: Her book sold merely 2,912 copies in its first week.
6) Clinton attacked Trump about his actions of honouring Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin. She also claimed she was appalled by Trump welcoming Russia to hack the Americans. She suggested that she would take stringent action against Russia for hacking into American political organisations and governmental agencies.
In regards of the DNC leaks, Trump thought it might not be Russia-backed. He said it could have been China, or even a “400-lb person sitting on their bed.”
He also said current POTUS, Obama, America had lost control of things they were supposed to have and reinstated that America had to start upgrading herself in the aspect of cyber welfare.
7) Trump claimed he could not release his taxes as it was still under audit when asked. Clinton then started to pander by saying Trump was trying to conceal something like his debts to foreign nations.
Seriously, she did. However, Trump’s attorney had declared that his financial statements for the past few years had already been audited. Do note that presidential candidates are not obligated to release their tax returns, but are encouraged to do so for transparency.Online users and journalists have expressed the atrocity of Clinton’s hypocrisy about her e-mails.
Clinton then acknowledged she made a ‘mistake’ by using her private server, which could have potentially jeopardised the national security of America. Trump drove an assertion, claiming it was done on purpose.
On a side note, President Obama is currently experiencing backlash from the public as FBI document revealed e-mails were transacted between him and Clinton on her private server. However, he said in an interview that he realised the existence of her server the same time as the public did.
8) Clinton said Americans need to nail gun violence and work with the police to minimise the risk of police brutality.
On the same issue, Trump said, “we need to bring back law and order”, including establishing better relationships with the targeted audience. He also mentioned, “shop and frisk”, and claimed that the Blacks and Hispanics were living in hell as they might get shot while walking down the streets.
The FBI established that violent crimes rose slightly in 2015, but is still low. Trump has apparently said that murder rates were up in New York. This was proven false by data from the New York Police which stated that it had dropped from 246 deaths last week from 257 deaths last year.
Clinton expressed her annoyance at Trump as he painted a ‘negative’ picture of the Blacks. Her magniloquent description of the community is, “The vibrancy of the black church, the black businesses that employ so many people, the opportunities that so many families are working to provide for their kids”.
She also said that “shop and frisk” had found to be unconstitutional and ineffective. She then suggested that “we” need to come up with a plan, not just “law and order”.
“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’d do harm.”
When asked by one of the moderators if the bias was reserved to the police, she replied, “I think the implicit bias is a problem for everyone, not just police, too many of us in our great country jump to conclusions about each other.”
9) Trump claimed he put the ‘birther’ movement which was allegedly started by Clinton’s supporters when she was fighting against Obama in 2008. He also said he thought he did a good job at it.
Clinton then responded that his campaign was founded on the ‘birther’ movement and that Trump had a long list of racist history like getting sued twice by the Justice Department for racial prejudice.
10) Clinton commented on Trump’s nonchalant mindset on other powers acquiring nuclear technology, and his temperament regarding blowing Iran soldiers out of the waters if they dared to taunt the American soldiers.
Note: Allow me to remind you that America has one of the, if not, the strongest nuclear technology in the world, having almost 7,700 nuclear warheads which pose a hidden danger to the world. Ironically, her foreign policy restricts countries like then-Iran from getting nuclear power. The latter has successfully negotiated an amicable deal with the United Nations.
11) Trump implied to be President of the United States, one must require good stamina. He followed up by saying Clinton did not have a ‘presidential look’ nor the stamina to be President.
Clinton retaliated, “if (Donald Trump) spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.”
Note: The 11 hours she was referring to was to testify for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi.
Words by Beckham Lim
