By Florida Bill In my opinion, it was Republican Donald Trump at his best in the second debate with his opponent Democrat Hillary Clinton. He may have had a knee on the canvas when the questions began, but by the end of the 90 minute town hall Q and A session, he was standing. Did he win? You bet. It was a Trump night.
In the first debate a few weeks ago, Clinton came out ahead as she pushed buttons which infuriated Trump, leaving him scratching to make his points and defend himself against her accusations. He had a hammer to drop, but it got caught up in her needling about insignificant things such as whether he did or did not support the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He says he didn't and she says he did.
This time around, when the e-mail controversy was brought up, Clinton delivered a smug and disingenuous answer that it was a "mistake" for her to have a private server, and that she would never do that again. To her, that took care of the matter. Not so for Trump. He accused her of mishandling classified emails and then lying about the entire episode. She went so far, he charged, as to destroy thousands of emails, not before, but after having received a federal subpoena to produce them. Others have gone to jail for doing less. Clinton responded by saying that is "not true."
Trump then added the zinger. If I am elected, he said, "I will ask the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to review your behavior in dealing with the emails." He noted that her husband, the former president, had held a private meeting with the attorney general just a couple of days before the FBI announced that there would be no prosecution of Mrs. Clinton. Clinton attempted to shrug that off by saying that she was glad that he was not in charge of the country's judicial system. Trump nodded and shot back, "You'd be in jail."
Throughout the evening and during heated debate with sparks flying, there was a stern, get tough-on-Trump look on the face of ABC Television's Martha Raddatz, a co-moderator. She appeared determined to slice up Trump, and she consistently permitted Clinton to exceed time limits for answers to questions. The other moderator was Anderson Cooper of CNN, who is well known for his past criticism and disdain for Trump. Trump had it right when during the debate he said that it was a one on three against him. Cooper and Raddatz did their best to carry Clinton's water bucket.
The delicate and titillating subject of Trump's 2005 taped conversations was expected to be the haymaker for Clinton and for the moderators. Cooper posed the explosive question by saying, in that conversation "you described kissing women without consent, and grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?" The question pleased Clinton who has accused Trump of mistreating and misusing the distaff element of society
Trump appeared ready for them to gang up on him and did not back away. His composure was noticeable. As in previously televised statements, he repeated that he was “very embarrassed” by his vulgar comments that were recorded in 2005 when he talked about his ability to make advances on women because of his fame. “I hate it but it’s locker room talk. ........ I’m not proud of it. I apologized to my family. I apologized to the American people. Certainly I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk,” he said. When pressed by co-moderator Anderson Cooper whether he ever did any of the actions he described in the tape, which included kissing women against their will and groping their genitalia, Trump said he had not.
While acknowledging his embarrassment and regrets, he offered a comparison as to what authentic mistreatment of women entails. His vulgar banter, he said, pales in comparison to the brutality and rape and sexual misdeeds of Clinton's husband who was the 42d president of the United States. He was impeached, and he has been disbarred. I spoke wrongly, said Trump, but it was not words, just all action by former President Clinton. Hillary Clinton has attacked the women who were her husband's sexual victims. She should be ashamed of herself for how she attacked these women," he asserted, and should apologize to them. Trump then pivoted to ISIS and how the group is “chopping off heads” and how “so many bad things [are] happening — this is like medieval times,” saying those are the issues which should be the focus of the debate. "We should get on to much more important things and much bigger things," the Republican presidential nominee said.
In response to questions, both candidates said that they would destroy ISIS. But after a participant asked the candidates how they intended to deal with "Islamophobia," Trump opened up. Islamophobia is unfortunate, but there is a problem which needs to be addressed. That problem, he said, is "Radical Islamic Terrorism." Clinton, along with President Obama, has refused to even say the word---they will not identify the enemy. You cannot defeat an enemy which you will not even identify. Clinton responded by saying that "America is not at war with Islam." It is a mistake (to use that term) and it plays into the hands of the terrorists to act as though we are at war with Islam, she added.
One of the Town Hallers asked about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and noted that "it is not affordable: Premiums have gone up. Deductibles have gone up. Co-pays have gone up. Prescriptions have gone up, and the coverage has gone down." Both candidates agreed that the questioner's observations were accurate.
Trump described Obamacare as a disaster and recalled how President Obama had said that "if you like your doctor or your plan, you can keep them." Trump said the act should be repealed and replaced with a plan in which competition is encouraged and there is an elimination of territorial lines. Clinton said that she would fix what is broken in Obamacare, not repeal it. Moderator Cooper noted that former President Clinton has said that the plan is the “the craziest thing in the world,” but Clinton said that the wrong interpretation is being given to what her husband said. He supports it, she added. Trump also added that
she wants to go to a single payer system, which means the government basically rules everything. Hillary Clinton has been after this for years, said Trump.
Noting that Wikileaks had made public partial texts from speeches which Clinton had delivered to Goldman Sachs in 2013 in which she said that public officials often need to assert one position in public and another in private. With that comment, she was asked if it is okay for politicians to be two-faced? Clinton struggled for an answer and said that having watched the movie "Lincoln," she discerned that Abe Lincoln endorsed that policy when it became necessary to achieve a greater good, such as passage of the 13th amendment. Her answer did not sit well with Trump who interjected (to a blast of laughter) that she has lied again, "and now she is blaming the lie on the late, great Abraham Lincoln. That’s one that I haven’t (heard)…"
Asked about the comment calling all of Trump's fans "deplorables and irredeemables," she dodged and said the comment was intended only for Trump. Trump's retort was that Clinton has "tremendous hate in her heart." The third and final debate is scheduled for October 19 in the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Chris Wallace of Fox News has been selected by the Presidential Debate Commission as moderator.
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