The second presidential debate took place Sunday evening with 90 minutes of political banter and social distrust as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump rallied their supporters for their votes for the upcoming November election.
Moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz did have a better grasp of actually controlling the candidates this time around. Highlights from their performances include Cooper calling out Trump for bragging about sexually assaulting women and when both moderators pressed Clinton on one of the audience memberās questions:āis it ok to be two-faced?ā
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āIs it ok for politicians to be two-faced? Is it ok for them to have a private stance?ā
ThisĀ question from the audienceĀ referred to a speech that Clinton made at a Goldman Sachs conference in 2013, where she apparently said that politicians “need both a public and a private position.” Wikileaks had released these comments as part of their email reveal on Friday, according to the LA Times.
Without directly mentioning the emails, Clinton said the strategy is what she used to persuade different audiences to reach the same conclusion.
āI was making the point that sometimes it is hard to get Congress to do what they should do,ā Clinton said.
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āHe and I havenāt spoken and I disagree.ā
Additionally, one of the most talked about moments of the debate was when Trump disagreed with his running mateās comment on Syria. Trump was asked about Mike Penceās comment last week during the vice presidential debate about how the United States should āuse military forceā against the Bashar al-Assad regime. Trump said that he and Pence āhavenāt spoken and I disagree.ā Instead, Trump said āwe have to knock outā the Islamic State.
The Washington Post discusses the fact check flop below:
āRather than challenging the Syrian government of Assad and his allies, Trump said, the United States should be working with them against the Islamic State.
In a totally erroneous comment, Trump said that āAssad is killing ISIS, Russia is killing ISIS, Iran is killing ISIS.ā
Although Iran-backed militias in Iraq have fought against the Islamic State, and the Syrian army has skirmished with them in the eastern part of the country, Assad has by and large steered well clear of the militants in Syria, as has Iran. Russia has launched some airstrikes against them in Syria, but the vast majority of its bombardment there has been against U.S.-backed opposition forces and civilians.ā
Moreover, unfortunately for Trump, the FBI seems to disagree with his notion that Muslim-Americans donāt report suspicious activity. The comment was prompted by an audience question on what the candidates would do with the current islamophobia occurring in this nation.
Yet, after the Orlando nightclub attack that occurred this summer, FBI Director James Comey stated that, āThey do not want people committing violence, either in their community or in the name of their faith, and so some of our most productive relationships are with people who see things and tell us things who happen to be Muslim.ā
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Repeal and replace?
Apparently Trump also came out with a new campaign slogan in regards to the Affordable Care act, arguing that premiums and deductibles have risen too far and that the program must be abolished. Meanwhile, Clinton said that Obamacare needed reform, not a take down.
The night ended with a cringe-worthy audience question that basically asked each candidate to compliment the other. Yikes.
Who won the debate? Definitely not the American people who quite frankly donāt have much to work with this presidential election year.
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