by WorldTribune Staff, October 10, 2016
The rousing Oct. 9 debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton gave the wags across the pond some long-awaited red meat.
“The debate night that will be discussed for generations in Political Science classes – and Women’s Studies seminars – ended with Republican Donald Trump landing more punches than Democrat Hillary Clinton, and successfully deflecting attention away from a two-day-old crisis about graphic sexual language that threatened to derail his White House bid,” the Daily Mail said in its post-debate coverage.
One of the most talked about exchanges came during a discussion of Clinton’s mishandling of classified emails.
Clinton remarked that it “was a mistake and I take responsibility for using a personal email account … I’m not making any excuses. It was a mistake and I’m very sorry about that.”
The Democratic nominee insisted she was “very committed” to taking classified information seriously.
Trump countered: “And yet she didn’t know the letter ‘C’ on a document,” referring to Clinton’s statement to the FBI that she didn’t recognize that marking for classified information.
“She didn’t even know what that letter meant.”
“And she’s lying again … do you think it was fine to delete 33,000 emails? I don’t think so. For you to say that there was nothing wrong with you deleting (the) emails again, you should be ashamed of yourself, what you did.”
Clinton responded: “It’s just not true. Well, we turned over 35,000 emails” to the State Department.
When Trump interrupted, moderator Anderson Cooper jumped in, “please allow her to talk,” scolding Trump that Clinton allowed him to speak.
“That’s true I didn’t,” interrupt Trump, Clinton said in agreeing with Cooper.
“Because you have nothing to say,” Trump shot back.
Clinton replied: “Its just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law of our country.”
“Because you’d be in jail,” Trump responded to raucous applause from the audience.
When pressed on the hot-mic audio tape that consumed media coverage for 48 hours leading up to the debate, Trump responded:
“That was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I am a person who has great respect for people, for my family, for the people of this country and certainly I am not proud of it, but that was something that happened.
“If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words and his was action. His words, what he has done to women. There’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that has been so abusive to women. So you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton is abusive to women.
“Hillary Clinton attacked those same women, and attacked them viciously, four of them here tonight. One of the women, who is a wonderful woman at 12 years old was raped. At 12. Her client, she represented, got him off and she is seen laughing on two occasions laughing at the girl who was raped. Kathy Shelton, that young woman, is here with us tonight. So don’t tell me about words. I am, absolutely, I apologize for those words, but it is things that people say, but what President Clinton did, he was impeached, he lost his license to practice law, he had to pay an $850,000 fine to one of the women. Paula Jones who is also here tonight. And I will tell you that when Hillary brings up a point like that and she talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it’s disgraceful and I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth.”
On the “birther” issue, Clinton said that Trump has “never apologized for the racist lie that President Obama was not born in the United States of America. He owes the president an apology and he owes our country an apology and he needs to take responsibility for his actions and his words.”
Trump responded: “Well you owe the president an apology because as you know very well, your campaign, Sidney Blumenthal, he’s another real winner that you have and he’s the one that got this started along with your campaign manager and they were on television just two weeks ago, she was saying exactly that. So you really owe him an apology. You’re the one that sent the pictures around, your campaign sent the pictures around with President Obama in a certain garb, that was long before I was ever involved. So you actually owe an apology.”
One exchange that trended wildly on Twitter came when Trump said Clinton could not be compared to Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th president who was known as “Honest Abe.”
Clinton was asked if it’s acceptable for politicians to be “two-faced” in maintaining both a “public and a private position” at times to be successful in office — a comment she made during a speech before a Wall Street firm.
Clinton said she had made the remark at the time after seeing the Stephen Spielberg-directed film, Lincoln. “I was making the point that it is hard sometimes to get the Congress to do what you want to do and you have to keep working on it.”
Trump responded: “She lied, and now she’s blaming the lie on the late great Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe never lied. That’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you.”
Finally, a U.S. dustup worthy of the British tabloids added by World Tribune on
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