Poor Lester Holt. If anyone of the estimated 100,000,000 viewers of the first Clinton-Trump Presidential debate expected that he would be able to actually control what ultimately was the most unconventional of this kind of leadership platform, they were disappointed. While his questions were relevant enough, the answers he received were not.
At first, he asked about creating jobs, and received predictable answers. Clinton wants to created more for the middle class while increasing wages that women earn. Trump wants to keep jobs from leaving the country, claiming “ Ford is leaving, you see that their small car division, leaving…thousands of jobs are leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio, they’re all leaving.”
Hello: Lester Holt where were you? Unemployment in Michigan is 4.5%; Ohio’s unemployment is 4.7%–both better than the national average. And Ford CEO Mark Fields says zero jobs will be lost in Michigan because Ford will build two new vehicles at that plant.
When Lester Holt finally did speak, he asked Trump just how he planned on bringing back those “thousands of jobs,” even though technically, the jobs haven’t left.
Trump pointed to the fact that he intended to tax products that American companies make overseas before he would allow them to be brought back into this country. Holt did not make him explain that America has only 5% of the population, or that the other 95% of the rest of the world have buyers as well.
At this moment, it was clear that Lester Holt was going to allow no-truths to go unchallenged. Certainly he said nothing when, responding to a question on job creation, Clinton said that investing in clean energy would provide millions of jobs at a time when Trump claims climate change is a hoax.
“I do not,” Trump interrupted, breaking the debate rules—this first of many interruptions as he appeared to begin to unravel on the spot. “I did not say that,” he repeated. Again, Holt said nothing, instead of adding that in a speech in Hilton Head, SC, Trump precisely called global warming changed “a hoax.”
Likewise, when Trump commented “I’m a great believer in all forms of energy. But we’re putting a lot of people out of work. Our energy policies are disaster. Our country is losing so much in terms of energy, in terms of paying off our debt.”
No mention from Holt that domestic oil and gas production has increased under the Obama administration, and that the US has been the lead in US gas production since 2011 and the top producer of oil since 2013.
Clinton smiled, and occasionally laughed at comments so ridiculously off-topic and rambling that the entire point of Trump’s sentences seemed to be lost in translation, Holt was left to say “Let me interrupt for a moment” on several occasions. Unfortunately, he was ignored—another debate violation.
There were further skirmishes on Trump’s refusal to released his taxes, his incorrect denial that he would try to negotiate down the US debt, and the need for improvement on the training of police where racial profiling is concerned.
It was only when Trump responded that his solution to crime would be a return to “Stop and Frisk” that Lester Holt finally spoke up and mentioned that “Stop and Frisk,” the act of stopping anyone on the street and frisking them for weapons, was ruled unconstitutional years ago, that some order to the proceedings was returned. Well, sort of.
As he gulped swigs of water and started to increase audibly sniffing into the microphone as if trying to clear the last bit of drugs or mucous from his nasal passages, Trump lost all rationality as he launched into an incoherent explanation of the “birther moment,” which he created at the time of the first Obama campaign.
It was a downhill roll from that point on. Trump saying that Hillary lacked the stamina for the job of President, Trump mentioning a 400-pound voter, and Trump skirting the issue about whether he would accept the outcome if he lost the election.
Clinton came into this debate being held to a higher standard—as the first female candidate for President of the U.S. She excited the same way. Leaving the debate without speaking to the press, waving Presidentially.
Trump exited the debate through CNN’s Spin Room, trying to explain some of his answers, trying to gain added air time, and looking more like a disgraced executive about to be carted off to jail.
“Everybody love me. Just look at the debate polls,” he called as he left the hall.
According to CNN, Clinton won the debate 62% compared to Trump’s 27%. Enuf said.
