Evidently, when Donald made the decision to forgo impropriety at the first debate, he was unaware that the matriarch of the Clinton Crime Family was about to call him a cheating, tax-evading, lying, greedy, misogynist, racist, fraud and do it in front of his wife and children who were also sitting in the front row.
As a result, Hillary’s well-practiced tactics presented opportunities that Trump could have easily tied to 40 years of scandals but failed to do so.
Hillary fired the first salvo by bringing up class warfare when she said that:
“Donald was very fortunate in his life… started his business with $14 million, borrowed from his father, and… really believes that the more you help wealthy people, the better off we’ll be [.]”
An apt follow-up might have been for Donald to ask Hillary to explain how, with assistance from a non-transparent family foundation, and the deep pockets of Wall Street donors, she managed to accumulate $153 million in speaking fees between 2001 and 2015?
After Clinton accused Trump of “living in his own reality” Donald might have mentioned Hillary’s harrowing experiences with Bosnian snipers and Chelsea jogging near the WTC on 9-11.
Feeling confident in her ability to portray Trump as a liar, the Democrat presidential hopeful invited debate viewers to fact check her opponent on her website. Hillary said: “So if you want to see in real-time what the facts are, please go and take a look.”
That invitation was an open door for Trump to steer the conversation toward Benghazi by asking Hillary where the fact checker was on the night she told America that four Americans died because of an anti-Muslim video.
When Hillary brought up ISIS by saying, “Well, at least I have a plan to fight ISIS,” Trump should have asked whether her plan includes State Department Marie Harf’s Jobs-4-ISIS program or ISIS entering the U.S. through borders Hillary vows to keep open?
As for Clinton accusing Trump of lacking transparency on his taxes, Trump could have indicted her deleted emails by joking that he hired the same lawyers who deleted her emails to delete his tax returns.
Mrs. Clinton went on to impugn Mr. Trump’s character by implying that his tax returns may show that he’s “not as rich as he says he is…[and]… not as charitable as he claims to be.” A good retort would have been for Trump to force Hillary to explain her pay-to-play scheme and ask her why her 2015 tax returns say that 96% her charitable contributions went to the Clinton Foundation?
Clinton accused Trump’s failure to make his financial disclosures public as an attempt to “hide something”. That and talk about cyber security presented the Republican candidate the chance to redirect the conversation towards Hillary’s mishandling confidential emails – but he didn’t.
Trump could have agreed with Clinton and said that secrecy is something he learned from former State Department employee Bryan Pagliano who, after defying Congress and refusing to answer questions about Hillary’s private e-mail server, appears to be also “hiding something”.
When Clinton asked Trump: “Do the thousands of people that you have stiffed over the course of your business not deserve some kind of apology?” That’s when Trump should have said: “If we’re discussing ‘stiffing’ people, in the famous words of the woman who ‘stiffed’ four Americans in Benghazi, ‘What difference, at this point, does it make’ if I apologize or not?”
Hillary censured Trump saying: “I can only say that I’m certainly relieved that my late father never did business with you.” Trump could have responded, “I can only say that I’m certainly relieved that I wasn’t in Benghazi when you were Secretary of State!”
When the birther debate came up, no one would have argued if Mr. Trump chose to remind America that Barack Obama has been known to lie.
Trump could have then said now is as good a time as any for the president to release those elusive college transcripts, or broached the subject of the pseudonym Obama used when communicating with Hillary on the private email server he claimed to know nothing about.
During Hillary’s attempt to paint the whole nation as racist, Donald really should have thanked Hillary for not arriving at the debate on “colored people’s time”, and, in light of her recent health issues, congratulated the pandering politician for looking “no ways tired!”
When Hillary mentioned “Donald started his career back in 1973 being sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination,” he could have brought up Hillary starting her career defending a child rapist she knew was guilty.
After Hillary accused Trump of calling “women pigs, slobs and dogs, and someone who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers,” Trump could have respectfully pointed out that her untrue comments are a “basket of deplorable” lies. Trump would have also been justified in bringing up “bimbo eruptions”, which he chose not to do, and citing the first lady’s radical stance on abortion, which suggests that she, not he, is the one who thinks pregnancy is “an inconvenience”.
As for the segue into “equal pay,” Trump failed to inquire of Hillary whether “equal pay” means that everyone should earn $250K for a 15-minute speech like she does, or hired for a $600K entry-level job like her daughter.
Regarding Clinton mocking her debate opponent by saying he “loves…supporting. and hanging around beauty contests”; Trump wasted a picture-perfect opening to welcome Miss America pageant judge, and Hillary’s guest of honor, Mark Cuban.
All things considered, it’s clear from the first debate that when all is said and done liberals are more concerned with Trump sniffling than they are with Hillary lacking the “stamina” to walk up a flight of stairs.
Moreover, what is also clear is that instead of Trump defending himself in the next two debates, The Donald should listen to what the woman with the specially constructed podium has to say, and, then, use her own words to defeat her.
photo credit: HillaryforCO Denver Pride via photopin (license)
