The First Presidential Debate 2016

​On Monday, September 26, 2016 the first presidential debate took place between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton.  Hillary Clinton is a former senator and first lady (her husband was Bill Clinton), and is the current Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for President 2016. Donald Trump is a multi-billionaire businessman who has never held a political office and is the republican nominee for President.
​The first topic discussed was the economy, specifically jobs, taxes, and trade. Donald was asked first how he would create jobs, and he replied that China and Mexico were taking our jobs. He even gave an example that air conditioning companies were leaving the Midwest and moving to Mexico. Addressing how to create more business success, and in turn jobs, Trump said that he was “cutting regulations”. Replying to the same question that Trump was asked, Hillary said that she would create jobs in infrastructure. While answering the question Clinton also said that she would change regulations to benefit small businesses which would further create jobs. According to Clinton, “broad based inclusive growth is what we need in America.” Another economy question addressed taxes. Hillary responded by saying that she would increase taxes on the rich and decrease taxes on the middle class. Some of her goals for the money would be free college, paid family leave, and earned sick days. Saying that he would reduce taxes from 35% to 15% on small business and large companies alike Trump responded to that same question with specific numeric examples of his tax cut plans. Trump who was concluding his statement and addressing Clinton said that “I’m going to cut taxes big league and you’re going to raise taxes big league. End of story.” The last economic subject discussed was trade deals. Hillary said that she would sign and support smart and fair trade deals. Donald Trump said that he would renegotiate many trade deals, that NAFTA is the worst trade deal in the United States ever, and that we owe twenty trillion dollars, but, our infrastructure could be better. He used that statement as a transition to mention that he has a building being built and it is under budget and ahead of schedule and commented that that was how America was supposed to be.
​The second topic discussed was racial issues, police brutality, and guns/gun control. Clinton stated on the issue of race and police brutality that “Everyone should be respected by the law and everyone should respect the law”. She also said that people should work to rebuild trust in their communities, and that working with communities, training police better, and retraining officers was the way to solve those issues. She also brought up that her opponent, Donald Trump, had a history of not renting to people of color in the 1970’s when he was first starting his business career. Donald Trump said that we need “law and order”, and that he supported ‘stop and frisk’ which he claimed dropped the murders in New York City from 2,200 to 500, that is a 77.3% decrease. He also claimed that politicians always make promises they can’t or won’t keep to African Americans. On guns and gun control Clinton said that gun violence is the number one cause of death among young African Americans and we need to get guns away from people who shouldn’t have them. She said if a person is “too dangerous to fly, you’re too dangerous to buy a gun” and surprisingly Donald Trump agreed with her. Donald also said that there were thousands of shootings in Chicago just in 2016 alone to emphasize how real the gun epidemic is. Trump and Clinton did not argue much when it came to guns and gun control.
​The last section was about Security, cybersecurity, and nuclear security, terrorism, Foreign Policy and Middle Eastern issues. Talking on cybersecurity Donald Trump said that we have to get tougher on cybersecurity, and attacking ISIS online. As for Hillary, she said that Russia is using cyber-attacks and that Putin is setting Russian hackers loose on the U.S.  Clinton also laid out a plan to fight ISIS. Her plan was to support Arab allies, attack radicalizers online, seek Muslim communities’ cooperation to stop more attacks, and intensify air-strikes. She criticized her opponent saying that he didn’t have a secret plan to fight ISIS and that “the only secret is that he has no plan”. Trump refused to share his plan for ISIS’s defeat, and he claimed that ISIS is a problem that Obama and Hillary Clinton created by pulling soldiers out of the Middle East too quickly, making a power vacuum which ISIS filled. He claimed that nuclear weapons were the greatest challenge this country has and Clinton agreed. Saying that we aren’t keeping up with other countries nuclear machinery-wise, he criticized our activity in this growing field. On foreign policy Clinton said that we need to have good word among other countries and ourselves, and encourage peace and prosperity, and defeat bullies at home and abroad. Stating that we should not be the police of the world, and that the Iran deal was the worst deal in the history of the world, and that we can’t keep defending other countries without monetary retribution, Trump voiced his position on foreign policy. As a conclusion question they were both asked why they should be president and if they can accept the results of the election. Hillary responded by saying that Trump has called women pigs, slobs, and dogs, and that this election is about you and your beliefs and interests and America as a whole, and that she would accept the results of the election. Donald Trump said that Hillary doesn’t have the stamina or “Hillary has experience but, its bad experience” and that he can make America great again and Hillary can’t.
​The debate has now become the topic of conversations all around the nation as citizens wait anxiously for the next two debates and Election Day on November 8th 2016. You can watch the debate practically anywhere like YouTube or news channel websites if you missed it. The next debates will be viewable on all the news stations like Fox, CNN, NBC, etc.