WASHINGTON: As they inch close to the White House race, Democratic and Republican contenders Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump respectively faced it off in their first presidential debate held on Monday. While Clinton seemed to come prepared, Trump was expectedly himself, and not entirely losing.
Stuck in a headlock for 90 minutes, over their polar opposite principles for the country's future, Clinton called for lowering of taxes for the middle class, while Trump set his focus on renegotiating trade deals that he believes have cause companies to move jobs out of the country. He backed the controversial "stop and frisk policing" to bring down the crime rate, as she argued the policy was unconstitutional and ineffective. As was anticipated, the debate was heated up from the beginning, as Don was himself, and tried interrupting Clinton and spoke over her answers. His competitor was, on the contrary, more measured and restrained.
Trump aggressively tried to turn transparency questions around Clinton, saying he would release his tax information when she produces more than 30,000 emails that were deleted from the personal internet server she used as a Secretary of State. In response, she said simply that it was a "mistake". "If I had to do it over again, I would obviously do it differently."
Both the candidates discussed trade, taxes, and ways to bring good-paying jobs in the country. Clinton said Don was promoting a "Trumped up" way of trickle down economics; a philosophy focused on tax cuts for the wealthy. The businessman panned policies he said have led to American jobs being moved overseas, and pushed Clinton on her past support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact while she worked in the Obama administration. "You called it the gold standard of trade deals. If you did win, you would approve that," he said. To which she replied, "I know you live in your reality." She attacked him with repeated questions about why he only recently acknowledged that Barack Obama was born in the United States. "He has really started his political activity on this racist lie," she stated.
The billionaire's campaign said that Clinton camp's concerns reflected worries about her debating skills. It is focused on restrictive immigration measures, including a physical wall along the US-Mexico border, and an early proposal to temporarily bar foreign Muslims from coming to the States. Clinton's win rests on her steadiness and different moves, including calls to expand Obama's executive orders if the Congress doesn't pass legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration system, and for broader gun control measures. She has called for a no-fly zone in Syria, but has vowed to keep the military out of large scale ground war to defeat terrorist organisation Islamic State.
