Clinton, Trump battle fiercely over taxes, race, terror

[webfact]

Clinton, Trump battle fiercely over taxes, race, terror

By JULIE PACE and JILL COLVIN

 

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) — In a combative opening debate, Hillary Clinton emphatically denounced Donald Trump Monday night for keeping his personal tax returns and business dealings secret from voters and peddling a "racist lie" about President Barack Obama. Businessman Trump repeatedly cast Clinton as a "typical politician" as he sought to capitalize on Americans' frustration with Washington.

 

Locked in an exceedingly close White House race, the presidential rivals tangled for 90-minutes over their vastly different visions for the nation's future. Clinton called for lowering taxes for the middle class, while Trump focused more on renegotiating trade deals that he said have caused companies to move jobs out of the U.S. The Republican backed the controversial "stop-and-frisk policing" tactic as a way to bring down crime, while the Democrat said the policy was unconstitutional and ineffective.

 

The debate was confrontational from the start, with Trump frequently trying to interrupt Clinton and speaking over her answers. Clinton was more measured and restrained, but also needled the sometimes-thin-skinned Trump over his business record and wealth.

 

"There's something he's hiding," she declared, scoffing at his repeated contentions that he won't release his tax returns because he is being audited. Tax experts have said an audit is no barrier to making his records public.

 

Clinton said one reason Trump has refused is that he may well have paid nothing in federal taxes. He interrupted to say, "That makes me smart."

 

Trump aggressively tried to turn the transparency questions around on 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 secretary of state.

 

Trump's criticism of Clinton turned personal in the debate's closing moments. He said, "She doesn't have the look, she doesn't have the stamina" to be president. He's made similar comments in previous events, sparking outrage from Clinton backers who accused him of leveling a sexist attack on the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.

 

Clinton leapt at the opportunity to remind voters of Trump's numerous controversial comments about women, who will be crucial to the outcome of the November election.

 

"This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs," she said.

 

The televised face-off was the most anticipated moment in an election campaign that has been both historic and unpredictable. Both sides expected a record-setting audience for the showdown at Hofstra University in suburban New York, reflecting the intense national interest in the race to become America's 45th president.

 

The centerpiece of Trump's case against Clinton was that the former senator and secretary of state is little more than a career politician who has squandered opportunities to address the domestic and international she's now pledging to tackle as president.

 

"She's got experience," he said, "but it's bad experience."

 

Both candidates portrayed themselves as best-prepared to lead a nation where many are still struggling to benefit from a slow economic recovery and are increasingly fearful of terror threats at home and abroad. When Trump jabbed Clinton for taking time off the campaign trail to study for the debate, she said, "I prepared to be president, and that's a good thing."

 

The candidates sparred over trade, taxes and how to bring good-paying jobs back to the United States.

 

Clinton said her Republican rival was promoting a "Trumped-up" version of trickle-down economics — a philosophy focused on tax cuts for the wealthy. She called for increasing the federal minimum wage, spending more on infrastructure projects and guaranteeing equal pay for women.

 

Trump panned policies that he said have led to American jobs being moved overseas, in part because of international trade agreements that Clinton has supported. He pushed her aggressively on her past support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact while she was serving in the Obama administration. She's since said she opposes the sweeping deal in its final form.

 

"You called it the gold standard of trade deals," Trump said. "If you did win, you would approve that."

 

Disputing his version of events, Clinton said, "I know you live in your own reality."

 

Trump struggled to answer repeated questions about why he only recently acknowledged that Obama was born in the United States. For years, Trump has been the chief promoter of questions falsely suggesting the president was born outside of America.

"He has really started his political activity on this racist lie," Clinton charged.

Trump also repeatedly insisted that he opposed the Iraq War before the 2003 U.S. invasion, despite evidence to the contrary. Trump was asked in September 2002 whether he supported a potential Iraq invasion in an interview with Howard Stern. He responded: "Yeah, I guess so."

Presented with the comment during the debate, Trump responded: "I said very lightly, I don't know, maybe, who knows."

 

The Republican also appeared to contradict himself on how he might use nuclear weapons if he's elected president. He first said he "would not do first strike" but then said he couldn't "take anything off the table."

 

Clinton said Trump was too easily provoked to serve as commander in chief and could be quickly drawn into a war involving nuclear weapons.

 

"A man who can be provoked by a tweet should not have his fingers anywhere near the nuclear codes," she said.

 

Trump replied: "That line's getting a little bit old."

 

Some frequently hot-button issues were barely mentioned during the intense debate. Illegal immigration and Trump's promises of a border wall were not part of the conversation. And while Clinton took some questions on her private email server, she was not grilled about her family's foundation, Bill Clinton's past infidelities or her struggle with trustworthiness.

___

Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-27

[gregk0543]

I like this video of Trump supporting Hillary in the past.

 

[DrTuner]

Boring debate. Hillary was parroting her aides precooked responses and Donald was thrown only a few well gnawed bones. I hope the moderator gives them more mud to play with in the next ones. We are not entertained.

[Pimay1]

It is really rich when Hillary claims to be in favor of equal pay for equal work for women when she pays her male staff more than her female staff. Just another one of her hypocritical statements.

[thaibeachlovers]

battle fiercely

 

LOL, LOL, LOL

I've seen a couple of kindy kids have a more passionate debate than that boring exchange.

Battle fiercely is in one of those parliaments where the politicians resort to fisticuffs and throwing stuff around.

To tell us that they "battled fiercely" is an insult to our intelligence.

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

17 hours ago, gregk0543 said:

I like this video of Trump supporting Hillary in the past.

 

Don't forget that Trump bought her.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar/04/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-says-donald-trump-wrote-10-checks-hillary/

Edited September 28, 2016 by thaibeachlovers

[gregk0543]

The problem with both these characters is that their characters are quite murky so a lot of time gets wasted on that.

 

Real policy is very sparse in the debate. Only general trends in thinking come out. Trump is in favour of taking advantage of the system and believes that less regulation and an easier path for the rich will create more jobs. His approach to govt. is like his approach to business making money by using others to his advantage. 

 

His foreign policy is the same. They should pay more. He does not seem to have an approach of sharing and win win deals.

But instead has a we win you lose mentality. His whole life is about taking advantage of others and laws in business. You dont see a man working for himself and others. 

 

He is not able to make his points on US manufacturing decline stick and his arguments are simplistic.  US companies make their products overseas and sell them to the wealthier american population. It is a world wide trend and the net effect is that there is more consumption and a higher standard of living all over the world. Goods are cheaper this way. His isolationist rhetoric does not appear to have any depth in the analysis and is not well thought out.

 

Hillary is pretty much business as usual with some small modifications. Some emphasis on being the best in sectors that are coming to fruition. Solar energy etc.  Moving forward. 

 

The economic argument if taken on its own is probably sufficient to show that Trumps policies would be a disaster for US businesses, economy and jobs.  

 

So just sticking to the policies, Trump's have a sugar coating but dont even seem to be able to be actually carried out.

He is selling a lemon car.

Hillary's dont look good but are probably more sensible.

Its a tough world and to think that Politicians can fix everything is a pipe dream. The real purpose of a democracy should be to protect the people from being taken advantage of by the powerful few.  Radical change is not an option.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, gregk0543 said:

The problem with both these characters is that their characters are quite murky so a lot of time gets wasted on that.

 

Real policy is very sparse in the debate. Only general trends in thinking come out. Trump is in favour of taking advantage of the system and believes that less regulation and an easier path for the rich will create more jobs. His approach to govt. is like his approach to business making money by using others to his advantage. 

 

His foreign policy is the same. They should pay more. He does not seem to have an approach of sharing and win win deals.

But instead has a we win you lose mentality. His whole life is about taking advantage of others and laws in business. You dont see a man working for himself and others. 

 

He is not able to make his points on US manufacturing decline stick and his arguments are simplistic.  US companies make their products overseas and sell them to the wealthier american population. It is a world wide trend and the net effect is that there is more consumption and a higher standard of living all over the world. Goods are cheaper this way. His isolationist rhetoric does not appear to have any depth in the analysis and is not well thought out.

 

Hillary is pretty much business as usual with some small modifications. Some emphasis on being the best in sectors that are coming to fruition. Solar energy etc.  Moving forward. 

 

The economic argument if taken on its own is probably sufficient to show that Trumps policies would be a disaster for US businesses, economy and jobs.  

 

So just sticking to the policies, Trump's have a sugar coating but dont even seem to be able to be actually carried out.

He is selling a lemon car.

Hillary's dont look good but are probably more sensible.

Its a tough world and to think that Politicians can fix everything is a pipe dream. The real purpose of a democracy should be to protect the people from being taken advantage of by the powerful few.  Radical change is not an option.

 

 US companies make their products overseas and sell them to the wealthier american population.

 

Indeed they do, which is why Trump is popular. Goods can be cheap as, but it won't help the unemployed masses if they can't afford to buy them.

[Chicog]

When Trump spent 30 minutes banging on about his new hotel before he finally said Obama is an American citizen, a few reports snuck off without permission to snoop around.

Everything in the hotel is Chinese made.

Good old Trump, even at this stage he's still a lying, hypocritical PoS.

 

 

[pegman]

There seems to be a serious concern that Trump is a practicing Cokehead. This would make him an easy extortion target by his busines associates in the Italian Mafia. He should immediately submit to drug testing and release the results to the public. Here is what a medical doctor has to say about Trump's many symptoms.

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/howard-dean-donald-trump-cocaine-tweet-228806