Monday’s debate was what everyone was waiting for: the first real Trump-Clinton head-to-head. Supporters on both sides waited eagerly for this moment, undecided voters waited in apprehension. In the end, it seems that preparation and experience won out over charisma and attacks in a truly disastrous debate for Trump.
The debate started rather promisingly, with policy talk on trade. This was not to last. Trump’s first major failure occurred when Hillary brought up that Trump had said in 2006 that he hoped the financial collapse would happen so that he could profit from it. Trump’s response was “That’s called business, by the way.” Business or not, comments like that only distance Trump from the American people, many of whom lost a lot during the crisis. Distance from the people can be damning to a populist like Trump.
That criticism from Clinton, followed up by a bit discussing how her tax plan has been estimated to raise the national debt by less than Trump’s (a statement supported by a large number of credible tax experts) and how he has denied climate change very obviously irritated him. That irritation boiled over towards the end when Trump uttered his bizarre and completely nonfactual claim that “No wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life.” Besides being absolutely false, this claim demonstrated, yet again, that Trump lacks the ability to seriously debate policy, especially if he faces any criticism. Shortly afterwards, Trump was questioned on his reasoning for not releasing his tax returns. Trump tried to use the usual line on how being under audit prevents him from doing so and how his Federal Elections Commission financial disclosure form would provide more information than his tax returns. This claim is totally false, and he was called out on it. The moderator mentioned that the IRS commissioner himself has said that you are legally allowed to publish your tax returns while under audit, and Clinton brought up that a financial disclosure form doesn’t give anyone any idea of the charitable donations of a candidate, their effective tax rate or their liquid assets.
The result of this confrontation led to a segment from Clinton criticizing Trump for not releasing his tax returns as it might indicate that he has not been as charitable as he claims, as rich as he claims or that he pays no income tax at all. This criticism came to a head when Clinton said, “If you have paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. And I think probably he is not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are because it must be something really important, even terrible, that he is trying to hide.” That statement sent Trump into a spiral in which all he could do was deflect the question by mentioning Clinton’s emails or go off on an incoherent spiel tangentially related to the economy.
In the next segment regarding the direction of America, race and crime in particular, Trump somehow managed to perform even more poorly, endorsing “stop-and-frisk” as a way to improve community relations and lower crime, citing New York City as an example. However, despite being called out on the fact that stop-and-frisk was ruled unconstitutional by a federal district judge and that it has been considered by many to hurt community relations (the New York attorney general has said as much), Trump stood by his claim. This allowed Clinton to attack his record of racism, citing his belief of the birther argument and him being sued by the Justice Department for housing discrimination back in the 70s. She was also able to attack his claims that crime had risen in New York City, as well as the rest of the country, claims that are both false given that crime has fallen significantly since the 1990s and early 2000s.
The final segment focused on securing America, and Trump, again, performed abysmally. He preached his usual nonsense regarding how hard he is going to go after ISIS (despite not having released a plan), how we should’ve taken Iraq’s oil (illegal under international law) or how he was against the war in Iraq the entire time (he wasn’t), among other lies. Trump then made two major gaffes after being called out for lying.
The first related to him praising his own temperament, which resulted in Clinton disarming and brushing off his statement with a simple “okay.” Transitioning from this, she was able to attack his statements and turn the conversation against him, particularly in regards to nuclear weapons. She was able to use his comments regarding how he would’ve attacked Iranian sailors who taunted American sailors earlier this month to state that “a man who can be provoked by a tweet shouldn't have his fingers anywhere near the nuclear codes as far as I think anyone with any sense about this should be concerned.”
The second came at the end of the debate, when Trump was questioned on his comment of “I just don’t think she has a presidential look.” Trump attempted to change “look” to “stamina,” but was quickly cut down by Clinton, who brought the conversation back to “look.” She then mentioned many of the sexist remarks Trump has said over his career and during the election, throwing him off balance for the rest of the debate.
In this first debate, Trump’s chance to make his case to the nation, he failed miserably. He mentioned concrete policy only a handful of times and the rest amounted to segments from his stump speeches. His attacks on Clinton fell flat, as she was well prepared and the crowd was not able to help him. Furthermore, he appeared to be easily baited by Clinton, falling for her well-prepared, rehearsed attacks.
Most of all, however, Trump failed to be presidential in both actions and words. His lines of attack were simple recycled nonsense and his policy proposals lacked any sort of substance. He appeared lethargic at times and incoherent at others. Apparently, Trump’s style of bombastic charisma is only effective when other candidates play to his level, something Clinton avoided like the plague. Trump may have other opportunities to recover, such as the second and third debates, but, for now, Trump will have to settle for being an embarrassment to his party and his country.