On September 26th 2016, the United States watched two candidates go face-to-face in the first debate for the Presidency since 2012.
The candidates, Republican nominee Donald J. Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, exchanged their beliefs and positions at Hofstra University on Long Island, NY. Moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, the debate lasted approximately 90 minutes, and covered three important topics: “America’s Direction,” “Achieving Prosperity” and “Securing America.”
Both candidates hit each other ard multiple times, with exchanges from Mr. Trump about Secretary Clinton’s poor record over the last thirty years, while Secretary Clinton attacked Mr. Trump about his sexist remarks on women.
Discussing the Iraq War, Secretary Clinton, who voted in favor for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq while Senator of New York, accused Mr. Trump of supporting the costly and ineffective war. According to a CNN/ORC poll of debate watchers on CNN.com, 62% believed Clinton won, while only 27% of watchers believe Trump won the debate.
Frequent interruptions by Mr. Trump during Secretary Clinton’s speaking time, as well as Mr. Trump’s incoherent responses to questions put him on the defensive against Secretary Clinton, allowing the various polls from CNN to declare Secretary Clinton the victor of that first debate.
In a similar debate format, the first and only Vice Presidential debate was held on October 4th, at Longwood University in Farmville, VA. With an identical 90 minute configuration, Vice Presidential candidates Governor Mike Pence for the Republican party and Senator Tim Kaine for the Democratic party debated one another on numerous topics centered around the United States’ Foreign Policy.
Moderated by CBS’ Elaine Quijano, the debate was structured around nine segments of ten minutes each. Equally witty as his running mate, Governor Pence responded to Senator Kaine’s “pre-done” lines with one line responses, such as “Did you work on that a long time?” in response to Senator Kaine’s remark that “Donald Trump can’t start a Twitter war with Miss Universe without shooting himself in the foot”.
Senator Kaine held a position during the debate defending the status quo of the current administration and the past of his running mate, Secretary Clinton, while Governor Pence took a stance of “peace through strength” throughout the debate, in response to Russia and other foreign threats.
Both candidates, equally diplomatic, initially respected the debate rules moderated by Ms. Quijano, however over the course of the ninety minutes, Senator Kaine repeatedly interrupted Governor Pence over 70 times, compared to Mr. Trump’s 51 interruptions of Secretary Clinton in the first Presidential debate, according to vox.com and thehill.com.
Governor Pence took a different approach, remaining presidential and resolute, letting Senator Kaine finish his allotted two minutes of response time and very rarely engaging in any banterous exchanges with the Senator. According to the Boston Globe, both candidates “paused the bickering over one policy”, explaining how community policing is a nonpartisan issue that needed to be addressed by both candidates.
In early post debate polls, Governor Pence had a landslide victory over Senator Kaine, with polls from Drudge Report showing a 96% to 4% victory out of 28,270 poll participants, similar to a poll from NJ.com showing a 75% to 25% victory for Governor Pence of 35,500 poll participants.
The third Presidential debate, held in a town hall style format, will be held on Sunday, October 9th, and the final debate of the 2016 election will be held on Wednesday, October 19th, both at 9 PM EST.
