Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump a racist and a sexist – to his face – in brutal exchanges during the year’s first presidential debate Monday night.
Her charges of racism stemmed from an age-old complaint that he had supported ‘birther’ conspiracies questioning Barack Obama’s U.S. birth and therefore his eligibility to be president.
And she leveled charge after charge at the Republican in an attempt to frame him as an unrepentant chauvinist, aided by a question from moderator Lester Holt about a one-time comment that Clinton lacked ‘the look’ to be president.
‘This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs,’ Clinton said – a similar challenge to one Trump faced more than a year ago from Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly at the first GOP primary debate.
Monday he answered it a second time with a jab at an old entertainment nemesis.
‘Somebody who’s been very vicious to me, Rosie O’Donnell – I said very tough things to her,’ Trump protested, ‘and I think everybody would agree that she deserves it, and nobody feels sorry for her.’
Clinton’s extraordinary race attack, though, was the most stinging and bitter moment of a debate marked by angry shouting and cross-talk between the rival candidates.
RACE: FROM HEALING AMERICA’S WOUNDS TO BOTH SIDES’ ‘BIRTHER’ SMEARS
In a furious exchange that began as a segment about racial healing in America, holt asked Trump about his role perpetrating the ‘false claim’ that Obama was born abroad – one he claimed to have settled in 2012 but which he kept publicly doubting until weeks ago.
Holt asked Trump what changed his mind, since the candidate came out and said this month that Obama was born in the U.S. after questioning his citizenship for five years.
Trump delivered one of his most disjointed answers of the night, as he tried to blame former 2008 Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, who told CNN recently that a Clinton state volunteer had forwarded a birther email but was fired for it.
Trump also referenced longtime Clinton friend and advisor Sidney Blumenthal, but failed to explain his claim that Clinton herself was somehow involved with starting the ‘birther’ rumor when she ran against Obama in the Democratic primary eight years ago.
Asked why he changed his mind, Trump responded, ‘Nobody was pressing it. Nobody was caring much about it. I figured you’d ask the question tonight of course.’
When he was done, Clinton pounced.
‘Just listen to what you heard,’ Clinton said.
‘He tried to put the whole racist birther lie to bed. But it can’t be dismissed that easily.’
‘He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen. There was absolutely no evidence for it. But he persisted,’ Clinton continued.
She said Trump continued the lie because some of his supporters ‘either believed it or wanted to believe it.’
Clinton also reminded Trump of a federal racial discrimination lawsuit brought against his father’s real estate company in the 1970s.
‘He has a long record of engaging in racist behavior,’ Clinton declared.
SEXISM: FROM CLAIMING PREGNANCY IS ‘INCONVENIENT’ TO CALLING A WOMAN ‘MISS PIGGY’
Clinton’s slings on gender were almost as pointed, claiming Trump had once said ‘pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers.’
‘I never said that,’ Trump interrupted.
‘Who has said women don’t deserve equal pay unless they do as good a job as men,’ Clinton added.
‘I didn’t say that,’ he objected again.
‘And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest,’ Clinton lectured.
‘He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman Miss Piggy, then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was a Latina.
‘Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado, and she has become a U.S. citizen and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.’
HACKING: CLINTON SAYS RUSSIA HACKED THE DNC… BUT TRUMP CLAIMS IT COULD’VE BEEN A 400-POUND LONER
The first presidential debate had quickly devolved into a contentious slugfest when Trump repeatedly cut off Clinton and she accused her rival of saying ‘crazy things.’
‘I have the feeling that by the end of the evening I’m going to be blamed for everything that’s ever happened’ an exasperated Clinton interjected after getting repeatedly hit by Trump on taxes and trade.
‘Why not?’ shot back Trump in just one of his spontaneous quips.
Clinton then told her rival to ‘just join the debate by saying more crazy things.’
Trump also challenged Clinton’s claim that Russian state actors hacked into the Democratic National Committee, saying it could have been anyone.
Anyone including, he said, a morbidly obese loner.
‘Maybe it was. It could be Russia,’ Trump said of this summer’s embarrassing hack attack that exposed a Democratic Party plot to deliver the presidential nomination to Clinton.
‘It could also be China,’ he mused.
‘It could also be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.’
Clinton called Trump ‘praiseworthy’ in his comments about Russian president Vladimir Putin, suggesting that he had invited Moscow to hack Americans.
Trump did suggest this summer that if Russia had already hacked into Clinton’s emails from her time as secretary of state – 33,000 of which she later deleted – they should show them to the world.
Clinton said cyber warfare is ‘one of their preferred methods of trying to wreak havoc and collect information.’
‘We should be better than anybody else, and perhaps we’re not,’ Trump said of American cyber capabilities.
Clinton also blasted Trump’s ‘cavalier’ attitude to nuclear weapons.
‘His cavalier attitude about nuclear weapons is so deeply troubling,’ said Clinton, reaching for one of her lines.
‘A man who can be provoked by a tweet should not have their finger anywhere near the nuclear codes,’ she said.
‘That one’s getting a little bit old,’ Trump grumbled.
‘It’s a good one,’ Clinton retorted.
TAXES: CLINTON GOES AFTER ‘TRUMP UP, TRICK DOWN’ ECONOMICS… AND MENTIONS LOAN FROM HIS FATHER
Earlier, Clinton landed the first attacks of the night by going after ‘Trump up, trickle down’ economics, and mentioning the loan he got from his father.
Trump said Clinton was going to approve ‘one of the biggest tax increases in history.’
Trump slammed Clinton for backing a Pacific trade deal, which she once called the ‘gold standard’ but ultimately opposed.
‘Well, Donald I know you live in your own reality,’ Clinton shot back.
‘When it was negotiated, which I was not responsible for …’ said Clinton, discussing the deal backed by President Obama.
‘So is it President Obama’s fault?’ Trump asked.
Trump ‘started his business with $14 million borrowed from his father,’ the Democratic nominee said, recalling her own father as a small businessman who printed drapery fabrics.
She blamed Trump for favoring tax policies that grant relief to business, calling it a return to ‘trickle-down economics all over again.’
‘In fact it would be the most extreme version … I call it Trumped-up trickle-down,’ Clinton jabbed.
Trump fired back, saying he would give all American businesses tax breaks.
‘Under my plan I’ll be reducing taxes tremendously … for companies – small and big businesses,’ he said.
‘That’s going to be a job creator like we haven’t seen since Ronald Reagan. It’s going to be a beautiful thing to watch.’
Trump seemed unsure what to call Clinton at first.
‘Secretary Clinton – is that okay?’ he asked. ‘Yes? I want you to be happy. That’s very important to me.’
But minutes later he was calling her ‘Hillary’ as he blasted the former secretary of state for sinning her wheels for decades while America’s jobs fled to Mexico and China.
‘I have thought about this quite a bit,’ Clinton insisted.
‘Yeah, for 30 years!’ Trump blasted.
‘You haven’t done it,’ he said later.
He also claimed Clinton’s economic plan would put more and more American jobs on the ropes.
‘You are going to drive business out. … You are going to regulate these businesses out of existence,’ he said.
‘I’m going to cut taxes big-league, and you’re going to raise taxes, big-league.’
‘But you have no plan,’ Trump said during their clash over jobs and trade.
‘Oh I do,’ shot back Clinton.
‘I have written a book about it. You can pick it up tomorrow at a book store or an airport near you,’ she told her opponent.
‘You are going to drive business out. Your regulations are a disaster,’ he interjected. ‘You have regulations on top of regulations and new companies cannot form, he said.
‘I’m going to cut taxes big league and you’re going to raise taxes big league, end of story,’ Trump told her.
Holt tried to move on – but Clinton wouldn’t let Trump’s charge go.
‘That can’t be left to stand’ she told the moderator,
Clinton invoked her own father several times during the debate – and tried to get Trump’s goat by going after his business record, which he hold out as his top qualification for office.
He brought up his multiple bankruptcies, and mentioned specific contractors who she said got stiffed by Trump. Clinton even brought an architect who had designed one of Trump’s golf courses.
‘It’s a beautiful facility. It immediately was put to use and you wouldn’t pay what the man needed to be paid,’ Clinton said.
‘Maybe he didn’t do a good job because I was unsatisfied with his work,’ countered Trump.
Clinton then mentioned her late dad, who she said hung drapery, and asked whether those who did work for Trump ‘deserve some kind of apology.’
‘I am certainly relieved that my late father never did business with you,’ she told the billionaire.
Trump responded only with a generality. ‘Look it’s all words, it’s all soundbites. I built an unbelievable company,’ he said.
‘On occasion, four times we used certain laws that are there,’ Trump said of bankruptcy filings.
‘First of all they did get paid a lot,’ he said of his contractors. ‘I take advantage of the laws of the nation because I’m running a company,’ he explained.
BUT WILL THEY ACCEPT THE RESULT? CLINTON SAYS YES… AND TRUMP EVENTUALLY CONCEDES HE WILL ‘ABSOLUTELY SUPPORT HER’
Holt used his final question to ask both candidates whether they would accept the outcome of the election.
The candidates have pulled nearly even in some national polls, and Trump has called the system ‘rigged,’ leading to speculation there could be a contested election if the outcome is close.
‘I support our democracy. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose but I certainly will support the outcome of this election,’ Clinton responded.
Trump, when asked the same question, at first used the opportunity to get in his ‘Make America Great again slogan.
Holt followed up, and Trump once again repeated his slogan. But then he added: ‘If she wins, I will absolutely support her.’
Then, at 11.28pm, Clinton took the stage at her watch party at the Space at Westbury, an event space in the town near to Hofstra University, telling supporters she had a ‘great debate.’
‘Do you feel good tonight? Well, I sure do,’ she said.
She spoke for about four minutes to 550 people who watched the debate here.
Clinton appeared on stage with Bill Clinton and New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, a liberal Democrat, who claimed she ‘won hands down’.
Clinton entered to “Aint No Mountain High Enough’ and said: ‘Well, it was an amazing experience. And I am so happy we had this opportunity for the first presidential debate right here in New York at Hofstra University.
‘We’ve got two more debates and we’ve got more time before the election. And we can’t take anybody anywhere for granted. So, I came to thank you — thank you for everything you’ve done.’
She added: ‘So I’m going to do everything that I can. My husabnd Bill is going to do everything he can.’
Bill Clinton, standing stage-right with Cuomo, flashed a thumbs up to the crowd. The couple were then driven back to their Chappaqua home. She is due back on the trail on Tuesday.
Trump and Clinton met on Monday night in the most hotly awaited presidential debate in modern political history.
‘How are you, Donald?’ Clinton asked her Republican foe as she crossed the stage to shake his hand.
The first of three tug-of-war events between the two White House hopefuls is being held at Hofstra University on New York’s Long Island.
It’s a 90-minute contest of words and wits moderated by NBC News anchor Lester Holt.
Organizers from the Commission on Presidential Debates instructed the live audience Monday night not to cheer or applaud their favorite candidates.
Both the Clinton and Trump campaigns got tickets to distribute. Most of Trump’s went to members of his family including his wife and adult children, and their spouses.
Melania Trump and former President Bill Clinton met for a gracious handshake at the foot of the stage in the final minutes before the broadcast began.
Trump also invited Mark Geist, a survivor of the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya – a defining moment in Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, two Trump advisers, were seated up front near the stage.
His claque also includes Don King, a colorful and controversial former boxing promoter who has been his bridge to the African-American community in the critical swing state of Ohio.
In addition to husband Bill and daughter Chelsea, Clinton invited a domestic violence survivor – and a cerebral palsy patient who criticized Trump after he was accused last year of mocking a disabled journalist.
She also brought Mark Cuban, the billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner who has sparred with Trump this year after initially warming to his campaign in 2015.
Cuban said before Monday’s debate that he wouldn’t apologize for airing multiple seasons of a pornographic ‘Girls Gone Wild’ reality show on his cable TV network, despite his status as a high-profile backer of the feminist and ground-breaking Clinton.
A live audience of about 1,000 people gathered to watch the first Clinton-Trump debate, with a television audience predicted to reach as high as 100 million Americans.
Daily Mail
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