“You would go to jail.”
It was quite a remarkable – and incredibly low – moment in the history of presidential debates.
Donald Trump told his rival Hillary Clinton tonight that if he’s elected he’ll appoint a special prosecutor, and as he walked into her physical space on stage, threatened to put her in jail.
This after a Republican congressional committee cleared her in the Benghazi incident, and the FBI declined to prosecute her over emails.
Trump then casually called Clinton the “devil” and said she has “tremendous hate in her heart.”
Maybe those are winning moments for those who read Brietbart, but the reality is Trump has turned our American political system into the Jerry Springer show.
To turn attention away from his shocking tape where he’s heard making vulgar statements about women, he created a pre-debate photo-op with four women who have accused President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
He called the former president, who left office with a 65 percent approval rating, the worst abuser in political history. Clinton was impeached for lying about having an affair with a White House intern, but he has never charged, nor convicted, of any wrong doing.
Twenty years ago in presidential debates, then Republican nominee Bob Dole refused to engage Bill Clinton in questions about his character saying it was beneath the dignity of a presidential campaign.
In another remarkable moment, Trump was asked about Syria and whether he agreed with the tough posture that had been outlined by his running mate, Mike Pence, in the vice presidential debate last week.
“He and I haven’t spoken,” Trump said flatly. “And I disagree.”
Trump also admitted that in the past he did not pay federal taxes, although he did not say for how long. Under normal circumstances that would have been a shocking admission from a presidential candidate. But Trump has managed to turn it into a positive with his supporters.
Clinton missed opportunities to connect with the audience, warmth is not easy for her, and she was weak – once again – in answering questions about her emails. She did not deliver a knock-out blow, which means calls for Trump to drop out of the race are likely to lessen.
Trump kept up his energy through the entire debate, an improvement from his performance a couple weeks ago. He also had the best line of the night when he said “Honest Abe never lied,” pointing out that was a “big, big difference” with Clinton. However, the billionaire continued to have a problem sniffing into the mic, and he often appeared walking around in the background while Clinton was speaking.
The CNN debate watchers poll showed viewers thought Clinton won the debate 57 percent to 34 percent. But over 60 percent said Trump did better than he did in the first debate.