WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (KUNA) -- In a fiery presidential debate like no other in US history, Donald Trump on Monday night frequently attacked Hillary Clinton, often interrupting her, while Clinton portrayed Trump as unqualified for the White House and lacking the facts to back up his arguments.
"I have a feeling that by the end of this evening, I'm going to be blamed for everything that's ever happened," former secretary of State Clinton said at one point.
"Why not?" Trump shot back.
"Why not? Yeah, why not," Clinton replied. "You know, just join the debate by saying more crazy things." With six weeks to go in a campaign that has lasted well over a year, the first female presidential nominee of a major US party faced off against a billionaire businessman with no political experience before a potential record-setting audience of 100 million watching.
Some political analysts described the debate as "surreal," and said it often seemed there were two unrelated conversations taking place on the stage at Hofstra University on Long Island, New York.
Analysts representing both political parties, as well as instant polls from focus groups, indicated that Clinton clearly won the debate.
Once again, Republican nominee Trump incorrectly said he opposed the Iraq War.
"Wrong," Trump said when Democratic nominee Clinton accused him of supporting the war, which began in 2003. Trump was on the record as supporting the war as early as a month before Congress voted to authorize military force in Iraq and even soon after the invasion. He did not express his outright opposition to the war until more than a year later.
Trump said the so-called Islamic State (IS) would never have come into power if the United States had stayed in Iraq, and if the United States had "taken the oil" in Iraq and also in Libya.
Trump was aggressive, angry and often rapid-firing somewhat unintelligible streams of consciousness, at one point saying Clinton had been "fighting ISIS your entire adult life," referring to IS.
Trump accused Clinton and President Barack Obama of withdrawing troops and leaving a vacuum in Iraq and Syria, which allowed IS to take root.
On the Iran nuclear deal, Trump said the US paid USD 1.7 billion in cash to Iran, but he suggested it was ransom for hostages, when in fact it was Iran's money for military goods never delivered to Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Clinton said the US needs an "intelligence surge" to help prevent terrorist attacks by homegrown violent extremists.
She blamed Russia for conducting cyberattacks, saying Russia and President Vladimir Putin were playing a "long game" in that sphere.
"The United States has much greater capacity," she said, implying that the US could respond in kind.
But Trump seemed to try to deflect responsibility away from Moscow. "It could be Russia," he said, "but it could also be China." US intelligence officials concluded with "high confidence" that the most recent round of cyberattacks against the US originated from Russia.
Trump again asserted that many NATO countries do not contribute their full share to NATO, while Clinton focused on the positive aspects of NATO, including the NATO decision after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US to join the US in taking part in the war in Afghanistan.
Clinton often smiled and seemed to frequently laugh off Trump. On the longstanding Clinton campaign charge that Trump does not have the temperament to be president, Trump said, "I have a winning temperament.... My strongest attribute is my temperament." While Clinton seemed to struggle to explain her flip-flop on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Trump repeatedly doubled down on proven false statements, including his years-long claim that Obama was born in Kenya, and therefore was not American and unqualified to be president.
Clinton said Trump's economic policies favor wealthy Americans, describing them as "trumped-up, trickle-down." She said he got a USD 14 million loan from his father to start his business and that he "really believes the more you help wealthy people, the better off we'll be." Trump said China is "devaluing their currency" to gain an economic advantage. He described a dire situation for the US industrial economy, saying that "Ford is leaving," referring to the automaker, and that "thousands of jobs are leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio. They're all leaving." Clinton said Trump's tax plan would increase the federal debt by "over 5 trillion dollars," and that it would penalize middle-income families.
Trump said the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, "is the worst trade deal" in American history, and possibly in world history.
He said that "we have a trade deficit of almost 800 billion dollars a year," and blamed "political hacks" who negotiate trade deals for this. However, the US trade deficit was about USD 500 billion in 2015, and is on track for a similar number this year.
When Clinton said Trump in 2008 was rooting for the US housing market crash because he said it was an opportunity to make money, he interrupted her and said, "It's called business." When she said one reason he may not be agreeing to release his tax returns was because perhaps he avoided paying taxes, Trump interjected, "It makes me smart." "I don't mind releasing (my tax returns) - I'm under a routine audit," Trump said, then insisted that his financial disclosure form was available to the public, even though it lacks extensive details. "I will release my tax returns against my lawyers' wishes when she releases her 33,000 deleted emails," Trump said, drawing applause from the audience as he referred to the messages Clinton's team deleted as nonwork-related when she turned over her State Department email. When Clinton brought up the issue of a lawsuit in the 1970s alleging Trumps' family discriminated against African-Americans who were trying to rent Trump properties, Trump said he settled without admitting guilt.
Asked to explain to Clinton a previous remark he made that Clinton doesn't have the "look" of a president, Trump dodged the question.. "I said she doesn't have the stamina, and I don't believe she does have the stamina," he said.
"As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease-fire or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina," Clinton said to cheers from the audience.
"Hillary has experience, but it's bad experience," Trump retorted, drawing his own cheers.
Hitting Trump hard on some of his past comments about women, Clinton said, "This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs, and someone who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers. ... One of the worst things he said was about a women in a beauty contest ... and he called this woman Miss Piggy, then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she's Latina." Clinton also jabbed Trump on the issue of climate change for saying it was a "hoax perpetrated by the Chinese." "I do not say that, I do not say that," he said, falsely. Clinton then said, "Donald, I know you live in your own reality." He called himself "a great believer in all forms of energy," and said the US had too much debt to risk jobs on energy policies that might protect the environment.
He described Clinton as a candidate with lots of policy ideas but no history of success or results.
"Hillary, you've been doing this for 30 years," Trump said. "Why are you just thinking about these solutions?" "I have thought about this quite a bit," she replied.
The second of three debates between Clinton and Trump takes place on Oct. 9.(end) rm.tg