DHAKA: The first Presidential TV debate between Democrat runner Hillary Clinton and Republican runner Donald Trump ended at Hofstra University auditorium in New York.
The 90-minute debate was “jam-packed”, reports CNN.
The first presidential debate kicked off as Clinton and Trump took the stage, greeting each other with a handshake before walking to their respective lecterns.
The first question Clinton asked Trump: “How are you, Donald?” as the crowd cheered.
Later, she took a shot at Trump by referring to him receiving cash from his father when he first began his business while describing her own background as middle class.
“Donald is very fortunate in his life, and that’s all to his benefit", she said. "He borrowed $40m from his father, he really believes the more you help wealthy people, the better off you’ll be.”
Trump fired back, saying "my father gave me a very small loan in 1975 and I built it into a company", now worth billions of dollars.
On housing crisis, Clinton said: “Donald is one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis.”
She continues that nine million people lost their jobs, five million people lost their homes and $13 trillion was wiped out in the crisis.
“That’s called business by the way,” Trump says while interrupting her.
Clinton and Trump clash over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by Bill Clinton.
Clinton called out Trump for saying that “climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese”, reports the BBC.
Trump fired back, “I did not, I do not say that.”
During the debate, Hillary also claimed her economic plans would create 10 million jobs for the people of USA.
Trump on his taxes: “I will release my tax returns - against my lawyer’s wishes - when she releases her 33,000 emails that have been deleted.”
Clinton said that she’s not as rich or as charitable as he says he is, or that he maybe paid nothing in federal taxes.
She further alleged Trump was not ready to release his tax returns maybe because he hasn’t paid any federal income tax for a number of years.
In answer Trump said he is in the middle of a tax audit, but publishing his tax returns would not reveal much.
Besides, Clinton responded to Trump's attack about her use of a private email server while at the State Department admitting she “made a mistake”. “I’m not going to make any excuses,” she says, adding: “I take responsibility for it”.
Trump blamed the rise of ISIS on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Addressing the race issue, Clinton said “Unfortunately, race still determines too much” adding that it can determine where people live, education levels and “yes it determines how they're treated in the criminal justice system” while Trump said in places like Chicago and Ferguson, “African Americans and Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street you get shot.”
Hillary was particularly scathing to Trump for his praises of Vladimir Putin, adding she “was so shocked when Donald publicly invited Putin to hack into Americans”.
Trump accused Clinton of recycling a line too much: “A man who can be provoked by a tweet should not be near the nuclear codes”.
Clinton also accused Trump saying: “This is a man who has called women pigs, dogs and slobs, who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers ... one of the worst things he said was to a woman in a beauty contest … he called this woman Miss Piggy.”
To which Trump said: he “Never said that”.
He also questioned about Clinton’s stamina which many considered as gender-based.
Kelly Dittmar, a scholar with the Center for American Women and Politics, describes this type of attack as a coded way of highlighting gender. “There’s a perception of feminine vulnerability and weakness that he cues”.
BDST: 1005 HRS, SEP 27, 2016
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