Sparks Fly at First Clinton-Trump Presidential Debate

“I had a feeling by the end of this evening that I’d be blamed for everything,” said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Why not?” replied Republican nominee Donald J. Trump.

This testy exchange was fairly representative of the combative nature of the first Presidential debate that was aired live on Monday, September 26 from Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.

Formatted in a ninety minute segment the debate was broken in six fifteen minute pieces to discuss three main topics. Each candidate had two minutes to speak on the subject and the rest of the time was used for open discussion.

  • “Achieving Prosperity”- Includes job prosperity, income equality, and poverty in America.

Hillary Clinton led the discussion with her ideas on how to recreate a better economy for this country. These policies included raising taxes, creating jobs based on needs for the future, and making the economy fair to all.

Donald Trump took a different approach to this issue. He made clear that the only way to fix the economy was to not let China or Mexico steal jobs. Trump went as far to say that he would create 25 million new jobs if he was elected as the President of the United States.

  • “America’s Direction”- Includes Police Violence, and the Racial divide

Hillary Clinton made it clear that her campaign believes the parts of the criminal justice system are racist. She then implied that Donald Trump should never be president because he is racist.

Donald Trump attacked the topic with the statement that all this country needed was “Law and Order”. He also points out that guns should be taken away from gangs in the inner cities to protect the greater good.

  • “Securing America”- Includes Terrorism

A Hillary Clinton administration wants to focus on taking down ISIS by cyber means. She believes the future of terrorism will be battled on a digital field.

Trump clashes with Clinton the whole time over how troops in Iraq was a bad deal and that the US-Iran nuclear deal was a disaster. Fun stuff.

  • Student Opinions

The Eagle Eye conducted a random survey of students in A and B lunches on Tuesday, September 27, the day after the debate. The questionnaire asked how they personally felt about the debate.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the national polls scored the debate as a win for Clinton, most of the Tyrone students interviewed felt that Trump had won the debate.

The second presidential debate will be aired on October 9th, 2016. Tune into any national news station to watch the candidates battle it out for the 45th presidency of the United States.