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Political Debate News Coverage

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Political Cartoons

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Best Memes

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The best jokes, tweets and memes reacting to the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

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Best Tweets

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The first of three presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump went down last night at Hofstra University in New York, the home state of both candidates. NBC's Lester Holt moderated.
Some of you were dreading it.

Others were looking forward to it.

And a few were pretty psyched.

Either way, a lot of you had something to say on Twitter. Here are some of the highlights.

From the get-go, it was clear there was no love lost between the candidates.

Clinton's opening statement was out of her standard playbook.

Trump's opening statement was unusually calm, if sniffly.

The first topic was the economy, and Clinton remixed a catchphrase from the '80s.

A congested Trump turned the question specifically to jobs lost by trade, a favorite topic of his.

CLINTON: I call it 'Trumped-Up Trickle Down.'

TRUMP: Boeing has already shown me plans for a Mexican-shaped catapult.

- Big Sexy Jeb Lund (@Mobute) September 27, 2016

My God. Someone, PLEASE, get @realDonaldTrump a tissue. #Debates2016 #DebateNight #Debates #cato2016 pic.twitter.com/VghJMnvx0a

- Kat Murti (@KatMurti) September 27, 2016

Clinton pivoted to one of President Obama's favorites: revitalizing the economy through green jobs, somehow.

Trump tried to disagree, but bumbled the phrasing and seemed frustrated.

Instead, he counter-attacked, hitting Clinton for supporting NAFTA and flip-flopping on the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal.

Clinton baited Trump on his tax plans...

...and he snapped it right up...

Trump says he's calling for "major jobs."

Problem solved.

- Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) September 27, 2016

...and said something about ISIS?

Trump went back to his original defense on releasing his tax returns.

Clinton said he won't release them because he probably didn't even pay taxes. Trump...agreed?

"Release your taxes!" ~ Clinton

"Release your emails!" ~ Trump

"Release the Kracken!" ~ America

- Peter Jaworski (@petermjaworski) September 27, 2016

They next talked about race relations and crime in the inner cities.

"How will you heal the racial divide in America?"

You have 2 minutes

- Mike Duncan (@mikeduncan) September 27, 2016

Here, Clinton started to gain some momentum and tried to shift to gun control.

TRUMP: Murders have gone back up

HILLARY: No, murders are still going down

TRUMP: Not fatal murders

- Terry F (@daemonic3) September 27, 2016

Trump touted the need for crime prevention.

"How would you heal racial divisions?"
"With a rant about how our country is a 3rd world country, and immigrants have guns"#debatenight

- Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 27, 2016

lester holt: ya but stop and frisk is racial profiling
trump: i know about minorities lester i am orange

- forsooth, it's keith (@ghostkrogh) September 27, 2016

She called for a ban on gun purchases by people on government watch lists. Again, he agreed.

Hillary hates stop-and-frisk. Trump loves it.
Trump hates gun control. Hillary loves it.
Stop-and-frisk is gun control. #debatenight pic.twitter.com/SOdSA2Bull

- Casey Given (@CaseyJGiven) September 27, 2016

Holt asked Trump about his long history of questioning Obama's citizenship.

Clinton had a solid response.

Holt's question about cybersecurity seemed like a set-up for criticism of Clinton's e-mail practices, almost as payback for the birther question to Trump. Instead, Trump talked about how his boy Barron is so good with the computers nowadays and the DNC may well have been hacked by obese basement-dwellers.

lester: how do we fight cyber warfare
trump: i have a 10 yo son, he is so good at computers, hes teaching me how to play doom, crazy game

- forsooth, it's keith (@ghostkrogh) September 27, 2016

Moving to foreign policy, Clinton was on surer ground and began to contrast her expertise with Trump's lack thereof.

take the oil

like, with a straw

out of the ground

- Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) September 27, 2016

Clinton noted that Trump and she had, at the time, held the same positions on invading Iraq and bombing Libya. Holt agreed. Trump didn't, and he can prove it: Sean Hannity will vouch for him. Call him and ask!

As the debate wound down, it seems to have occurred to the candidates that neither had explained why they should be president.

2 things amaze me about this. Trump has presented zero reason to vote for him. "But Hillary" is all he has.

Second is that it may work.

- John Noonan (@noonanjo) September 27, 2016

Clinton reminded the audience that Trump has been mean to women.

Trump, inexplicably, claimed that his temperament was his greatest asset.

I think my strongest asset is my temperament @realDonaldTrump #tremendous pic.twitter.com/bjqSZaj1Su

- Tamara Laine (@ChasingTamara) September 27, 2016

In the end, both agreed they would abide by the results of the election, a boast that in other times had not been required of American candidates. With that, the debate ended.

Trump seemed to have gotten the better of the first 20 minutes, but gradually surrendered the advantage to Clinton.

Voters who approached the debate with pessimism had no reason to change their feelings.

Stamina! Draperies! Underleveraged!

I hate this election.

- Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) September 27, 2016

There were a lot of laughs...

... until we remembered:

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Best Tweets Of The First 2016 Presidential Debate

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The first of three presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump went down last night at Hofstra University in New York, the home state of both candidates. NBC's Lester Holt moderated. Some of you were dreading it. Others were looking forward to it. And a few were pretty psyched.

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Memes

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In presidential debates, there is really only one winner: Twitter. As Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton threw punch after punch during Monday's first presidential debate, Twitter landed the deciding blows. (Well, Twitter and the fact-checkers.) It was hard to keep up during the most-tweeted debate ever, but we did our best to collect the smartest, funniest, most hard-hitting tweets of the debates. In case you were actually watching the debate instead of watching Twitter, catch up on what you missed below.

Before the debate even started, people had thoughts on the candidates' fashions:

And from the beginning Trump's sniffling became a constant topic of conversation:

For a while there was a rumor going around that the Trump campaign was deleting tweets that contradicted what he said in the debates. That didn't turn out to be true, but the tweets about it were funny:

Trump and Clinton went into a long dialog about taxes:

Race was also a heated topic of conversation during the debate and online:

At one point Trump criticized Clinton for staying home instead of hitting the campaign trail harder. Clinton responded that she stayed in to prepare for the debate, and that she also "prepared to be president-and I think that's a good thing."

Throughout the night fact-checkers got shout-outs from the candidates and fans on Twitter:

During a discussion of cybersecurity, Trump said the person who hacked the DNC could've been a "400 pound" person in their bed (it was actually likely Russia). The Internet naturally had feelings about that.

Trump later said he had a better temperament for the presidency than Clinton. Take it away, Twitter:

During a debate about the war in Iraq, Trump said that he expressed his opposition to the war to Fox News' Sean Hannity.

In short, it was a busy night.

https://twitter.com/GeeksOfColor/status/780604371226599425

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Presenting the Best Tweets of the First Presidential Debate

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In presidential debates, there is really only one winner: Twitter. As Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton threw punch after punch during Monday's first presidential debate, Twitter landed the deciding blows. (Well, Twitter and the fact-checkers.)

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Highlights

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presidential debate: hillary clinton delivers - cnnpolitics

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Hillary Clinton showed up at the debate of the century and delivered.

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Tweets

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the debate in 140 characters (and more) - cnn

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CNN Opinion is curating tweets and posting comments from our contributors on the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

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Photos from the Debate

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Photographs From the First Presidential Debate

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Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump faced off Monday night at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

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Trump Won

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Media coverage ignored the truly frightening things Clinton said in the debate.

The overwhelming media consensus regarding the first presidential debate - Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton and Lester Holt - is that Hillary Clinton won.

If she did win, it was because Trump, after a strong opening 30 minutes, allowed himself to get baited into emotional and tendentious self-defense.

And because the media have decided to focus on the tendentious - such as the utterly moronic issue of whether, in 1996, Trump called an overweight Miss Universe "Miss Piggy" - almost all the debate analyses ignored many of the most important things each candidate said.

On those grounds, Clinton did not win. On many truly significant subjects she said things that were actually frightening, and he said things that were actually important.

Some examples:

How she will expand government control over American life:

"We also have to make the economy fairer. That starts with raising the national minimum wage and also guarantee, finally, equal pay for women's work. I also want to see more companies do profit-sharing. If you help create the profits, you should be able to share in them, not just the executives at the top."

It's astonishing how little attention this proposal to force companies to give a specified share of their earnings to employees received in the post-debate coverage. It's socialism, bordering on communism.

What she will have the government provide for free:

"Let's be sure we have affordable child care and debt-free college."

How she will have it paid for:

"By raising taxes on the wealthy. . . . I think it's time that the wealthy and corporations paid their fair share to support this country."

According to Clinton, a 50 percent-plus individual income tax rate (including state income taxes and property taxes); and the top one percent of wage earners paying nearly half of all individual income taxes while earning 20 percent of total income do not constitute a "fair share." Nor does the 35 percent corporate tax rate, the highest among major Western countries.

Trump's tax proposal: "Under my plan, I'll be reducing taxes . . . from 35 percent to 15 percent for companies, small and big businesses. That's going to be a job creator like we haven't seen since Ronald Reagan. . . . Companies will come. They will build. They will expand. New companies will start."

Is that not important and substantive?

Clinton on reducing corporate taxes: "That is not how we grow the economy."

Isn't that economy-crushing view worthy of more attention than "Miss Piggy?"

Trump, on the other hand, knows what virtually every economist knows - that tax cuts and regulatory reductions produce jobs: "My tax cut . . . will create tremendous numbers of new jobs."

"You are going to approve one of the biggest tax increases in history," Trump said to Clinton. "You are going to drive business out. . . . You are going to regulate these businesses out of existence. . . . New companies cannot form and old companies are going out of business. And you want to increase the regulations and make them even worse. I'm going to cut regulations. I'm going to cut taxes big league, and you're going to raise taxes big league, end of story."

"End of story" is correct. Could Trump be clearer on how to revive the American economy? Could Clinton be clearer on how she would suppress growth and vastly expand the size and power of the government?

On the 2008 recession, Clinton was mendacious and demagogic:

"That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in the middle class, took their eyes off of Wall Street, and created a perfect storm."

There is no truth to what she said. The bursting of the real-estate bubble that caused the 2008 recession had nothing to do with "slashed taxes." It was overwhelmingly caused by her husband and the Democrats' attempt at social engineering by forcing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and even private banks to provide billions of dollars in home loans to people, many of them minorities, who could not sustain their mortgage payments as soon as interest rates were raised on their adjustable-rate mortgages.

(Had Trump made this point, it would have been a highlight of the evening.)

Clinton's gigantic-government - and preposterous - solution to the sluggish economy:

"Here's what we can do. We can deploy a half a billion more solar panels. We can have enough clean energy to power every home. We can build a new modern electric grid. That's a lot of jobs; that's a lot of new economic activity."

Trump's correct rejoinder:

"She talks about solar panels. We invested in a solar company . . . that was a disaster."

Yet another Clinton expansion of federal power that went un-noted:

"I'm going to have a special prosecutor. We're going to enforce the trade deals we have, and we're going to hold people accountable."

Clinton and Trump on her e-mails:

"I made a mistake using a private e-mail. And if I had to do it over again, I would, obviously, do it differently. But I'm not going to make any excuses. It was a mistake, and I take responsibility for that."

Trump: "That was more than a mistake. That was done purposely. . . . When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment . . . so they're not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up the illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it's disgraceful. And believe me, this country thinks it's disgraceful also."

Who won that exchange, American media?

Clinton on race:

"Race remains a significant challenge in our country. Unfortunately, race still determines too much. . . . It determines how they're treated in the criminal justice system. We've just seen those two tragic examples in both Tulsa and Charlotte."

In Charlotte, a black officer killed a black man who wielded a gun after officers, in a police department headed by a black man, repeatedly yelled "drop the gun" - and Clinton charges the police and America with racism.

If you want more race-baiting, America, vote for Hillary Clinton.

Why is there so much black-on-black murder?

"We've got to get guns out of the hands of people who should not have them," Clinton insightfully observed - as if there is one American who doesn't want to "get guns out of the hands of people who should not have them."

"The gun epidemic is the leading cause of death of young African-American men, more than the next nine causes put together."

Question for Clinton: Which is more responsible for black males committing murder at a higher rate than any other Americans - too many guns or too few fathers?

But it was not her gun- and racism-based explanations of black crime that troubled the American media. It was Trump's responses:

First, "Well, first of all, Secretary Clinton doesn't want to use a couple of words, and that's law and order. . . . If we don't have it, we're not going to have a country."

Second, he correctly noted, "We have a situation where we have our inner cities - African-Americans, Hispanics - living in he'll because it's so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot. In Chicago, they've had thousands of shootings, thousands since January 1st. And I'm saying, where is this? Is this a war-torn country? . . . We have to stop the violence. We have to bring back law and order. In a place like Chicago . . . almost 4,000 have been killed since Barack Obama became president."

And third, "Right now, our police, in many cases, are afraid to do anything. We have to protect our inner cities, because African-American communities are being decimated by crime, decimated."

To all of these powerful truths Clinton could only respond with demagoguery: "Well, I've heard Donald say this at his rallies, and it's really unfortunate that he paints such a dire negative picture of black communities in our country."

Clinton added later: "When it comes to policing . . . I have said, in my first budget, we would put money into that budget to help us deal with implicit bias by retraining a lot of our police officers."

That's what America needs - more federal governance of Americans' lives and more re-education programs. (And what is "implicit bias"?)

Trump, meanwhile, in his simple way, uttered a truth that no Republican I can recall has ever said:

"Look, the African-American community has been let down by our politicians. They talk good around election time, like right now, and after the election, they said, see ya later, I'll see you in four years."

On ISIS and Iraq, Trump correctly said:

"President Obama and Secretary Clinton created a vacuum the way they got out of Iraq, because they got out. They shouldn't have been in, but once they got in, the way they got out was a disaster."

This was another major truth ignored in all the commentary on Miss Piggy and "birtherism." Iraq was finally rendered relatively peaceful and then Barack Obama announced America was leaving.

On the Iran deal, Trump was also dead on:

"You started the Iran deal, that's another beauty where you have a country that was ready to fall. . . . They were choking on the sanctions. And now they're going to be actually probably a major power at some point pretty soon, the way they're going."

Perhaps my favorite moment of the evening - also completely ignored - was his quick reaction to Clinton saying that nuclear weapons "is the No. 1 threat we face in the world."

Trump: "I agree with her on one thing - the single greatest problem the world has is nuclear armament. Nuclear weapons, not global warming, like you think, and your president thinks."

She never responded to this devastating point about left-wing hysteria over global warming.

But she did have a lot to say about Miss Piggy, birtherism, and Trump's tax returns. As do her allies, the American media.

Dennis Prager - Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book isThe Rational Bible, a commentary on the book of Exodus. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com. @dennisprager

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Clinton Won on Nonsense, Trump Won on Substance | National Review

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Media coverage ignored the truly frightening things Clinton said in the debate. The overwhelming media consensus regarding the first presidential debate - Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton and Lester Holt - is that Hillary Clinton won. If she did win, it was because Trump, after a strong opening 30 minutes, allowed himself to get baited into emotional and tendentious self-defense.

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Trump Won

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Documentary filmmaker and outspoken liberal Michael Moore was one of millions watching presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton debate the hot-button issues facing the nation Monday night.

And he thinks Trump "won."

The tweet was one of many the creator of "Bowling for Columbine" and "Roger and Me" fired off Monday night, plenty of which were incendiary toward Trump's demeanor but also encouraged Clinton supporters to get up and "plan" what they're going to do to defeat the Republican presidential nominee.

It's over. Trump, the egoist, the racist, the narcissist, the liar, "won." We all lost. His numbers will go up. She told the truth. So what.
- Michael Moore (@MMFlint) September 27, 2016

"Pro-Hillary gloaters doing end-zone dance again when still on 50-yd line," Moore tweeted later in the evening. "U MUST get it in your head TRUMP IS GONNA WIN and act accordingly!"

Not everyone feels the same way as Moore.

The day after his first general election debate, Trump blamed the moderator, a bad microphone and said he was holding back to avoid embarrassing Clinton. Next time, he threatened, he might get more personal and make a bigger political issue of former President Bill Clinton's marital infidelities.

Clinton aides on Tuesday acknowledged they'd laid a trap for Trump.

"He seemed unable to handle that big stage," said Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. "By the end, with kind of snorting and the water gulping and leaning on the lectern that he just seemed really out of gas."

Moore is originally from Flint, Michigan and has championed causes from workers' rights to gun control and economic justice for the underprivileged.
News breaks at inconvenient times. Download one of the NBCChicago mobile apps and have the news come to you. Watch live streaming newscasts, receive critical push notifications on the go and stay in touch with your city around the clock.

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Michael Moore: Trump 'Won' The First Presidential Debate

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Documentary filmmaker and outspoken liberal Michael Moore was one of millions watching presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton debate the hot-button issues facing the nation Monday night. And he thinks Trump "won."

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Pundits Weigh in on Winner

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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in the first presidential debate of the 2016 campaign at Hofstra University in New York.

So who won and who came up short?

Here's what the political pundits are saying about it on Twitter...

See what Juan Williams, Dana Perino and Brit Hume had to say in the clip above and hear from Charles Krauthammer.

This what disqualifying looks and sounds like. #TrumpIsAHotMess #debatenight #ImWithHer

- (((Jehmu))) (@Jehmu) September 27, 2016

Trump is tanking when trying to explain why he questioned Obama's birthplace for so long.#DebateNight pic.twitter.com/WRXVShI1AC

- Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016

Trump is playing a losing game trying to explain Hillary's lack stamina/looks (?)#DebateNight pic.twitter.com/b9zsVZn7mq

- Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016

Republican Pundit Nicole Wallace: Hillary Clinton 'Looked More Presidential' https://t.co/kfeDpnzk61 (VIDEO) #debatenight pic.twitter.com/iXDHwXmnCD

- Mediaite (@Mediaite) September 27, 2016

Missing from @realDonaldTrump circus freak performance was anything remotely approaching a conservative idea #debatenight

- Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) September 27, 2016

Howard Kurtz: Clinton Had Debate Help From Lester Holt Juan Williams: Trump Failed to Exploit the Email Issue Mark Cuban: Trump 'Never Took Control', Always 'Counter-punching' Trump: 1st Debate Went Well Despite Hostile Questions, 'Terrible' Mic Gingrich: 'Enormous, Historic Victory' for Trump Giuliani: Trump Should Consider Skipping Next Two Debates

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Who Won? Pundits Weigh In on Trump-Clinton Debate

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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in the first presidential debate of the 2016 campaign at Hofstra University in New York. So who won and who came up short? Here's what the political pundits are saying about it on Twitter...

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Trump Won

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If polls only included media pundits, Hillary Clinton would have won Monday's debate by a landslide, but online surveys had Donald Trump as the yuge winner.

The Drudge Report online vote had 80 percent of respondents giving the victory to Trump, and a Time.com survey had the Republican nominee leading Clinton by 4 percentage points - 52 percent to 48 percent - after more than 1,300,000 votes were cast. CNBC and Breitbart votes also had Trump winning the event, at New York's Hofstra University.

A Fox News online vote had Trump winning with 50 percent of respondents, Clinton at 35 percent and the other 15 percent declaring no one won.

The online surveys are not scientific and, in many cases, supporters of either candidate can cast multiple ballots. Still, the disconnect in judging Trump's performance was reminiscent of the Republican Party primary, when pundits often said his competitors bested him while online polls put him on top.

Experts say the online votes are a good gauge of enthusiasm, which could mean Trump's performance was enough to energize those who already backed him.

Experts were near unanimous in finding Clinton was more disciplined and armed with greater recall of facts, but Trump's supporters believe his blunt style and unconventional background are among his best attributes.

Trump's best moment, according to Stuart Tarlow, of American Thinker, came when he distinguished himself from Clinton based on their disparate backgrounds. Trump characterized his opponent as a "typical politician," who knows how to make statements and promises that sound good, but who never actually gets things done, Tarlow wrote.

Most experts agree the winner and loser won't be determined based on arcane rules of debating. Hillary's mission was to come off as well-versed on the facts and warm, while Trump's goal was to appear capable of filling the role of chief executive.

The real test of who won and who lost will likely come in the next wave of scientific polling in what has become a dead-even race. If Trump continues to surge in key battleground states, it will be taken as evidence he accomplished what he needed to in the debate. If Clinton stops or even reverses his momentum, she may be retroactively declared the winner.

Edward Panetta, professor of communication studies at the University of Georgia and director of the Georgia Debate Union, said Trump got out of the gate fast, but then struggled.

"While Donald Trump was strong in the first 20 minutes of the debate he faltered badly as the debate progressed," Panetta said.

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Online votes declare Trump debate winner, despite media consensus for Clinton

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If polls only included media pundits, Hillary Clinton would have won Monday's debate by a landslide, but online surveys had Donald Trump as the yuge winner. The Drudge Report online vote had 80 percent of respondents giving the victory to Trump, and a Time.com survey had the Republican nominee leading Clinton by 4 percentage points - 52 percent to 48 percent - after more than 1,300,000 votes were cast.

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Hillary Won

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Well, they were both themselves. And Hillary Clinton was the winner.

It wasn't always clear that this would be the case as things began well for Donald Trump on Monday night at Hofstra.

The first third of the first presidential debate of 2016 was as close to a dream for the Trump campaign as they could have envisioned.

The Republican nominee was focused on the key themes of his campaign: his outsider status, strong business record and why we can't trust someone who has been in politics for 30 years and not solved any of our nation's problems. He spoke passionately about protecting American interests from perilous trade deals, a message that has been resonating with voters across the aisle. And he didn't lose his cool - at least at the beginning.

The debate, taken in its entirety, demonstrates how much preparation really matters. She was ready for all of his quips with a litany of detail that may have bored the viewer at points, but showed why she is winning on qualifications, experience and temperament in every poll.

For her part, Hillary Clinton began strong, but was too political and focused on her talking points. This is a change election where 55 percent of Americans want to go in a different direction and she failed to make clear how she is that change candidate. Instead, she emphasized the need to make the economy fairer and work for all Americans, to grow the economy and build the kind of country we want to live in - all themes that she discusses day after day and have shown to resonate very little with voters.

But then things changed.

The debate, taken in its entirety, demonstrates how much preparation really matters. She was ready for all of his quips with a litany of detail that may have bored the viewer at points, but showed why she is winning on qualifications, experience and temperament in every poll.

Indeed, there was not a moment when Clinton appeared rattled. This is undoubtedly because of her preparation but also because Trump missed a few crucial opportunities, most notably in not hitting her for her use of a private server when she was discussing cybersecurity or when she made mention of a special prosecutor. Why he didn't seize those openings is beyond me.

He also struggled on key issues like his taxes wherein he appeared to suggest that he doesn't pay federal taxes because the government misspends our dollars and she was able to control the debate on the birther issue and foreign policy.

Clinton effectively used Trump's words against him, especially in discussing nuclear weapons and the importance of America standing by our allies. She also garnered some of her highest marks in focus groups for her responses on healing racial tensions in America.

Clinton surely spoke in policy terms - she's a wonk, after all. She could've used more stories of real people and that will be something she will work on for the next debate. It humanizes her and makes it clear that she has dedicated her life to public service so that she can help all Americans.

But ultimately, everything she did on Monday night was enough to prove that there's a reason she's the Democratic nominee. There won't be anyone saying she isn't presidential and though Trump had his good points - namely at the start of the debate - it's clear that he was not cogent and generally discursive. He rambled and was rattled, two things that don't read well in a debate.

However, this doesn't mean that the trajectory of the election will change or that there will be a major shift.

It's possible that she blunted some of his momentum, but I doubt that Clinton changed many minds this evening. That said, she did lay the ground work for the rest of the campaign to effectively use Trump's own words against him. And, she proved that if Americans are going to vote on the basis of temperament and experience, they're going to be voting blue on November 8th.

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Hillary won the first debate (it helps to be prepared)

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Well, they were both themselves. And Hillary Clinton was the winner. It wasn't always clear that this would be the case as things began well for Donald Trump on Monday night at Hofstra. The first third of the first presidential debate of 2016 was as close to a dream for the Trump campaign as they could have envisioned.

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Who Won?

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The debate of the century delivered.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump waged a fiery battle Monday night when they appeared on stage together -- a clash of two famous personalities locked in a dead heat for the presidency. During one of the most highly anticipated debates in modern political history, the candidates drew sharp contrasts on temperament, character and policy and starkly different visions of where they would lead the nation.

By most measures, Clinton had the better night, repeatedly putting the Republican nominee on defense on the issues most likely to damage his White House campaign -- his refusal to release his taxes, his past comments on race and his past comments on race and his attitude toward women.

Trump started out strong and made effective points on the economy, trade and jobs that were uncomfortable at times for his rival. He put Clinton in a tight spot as he repeatedly accused her of being in Washington for 30 years and of doing little to improve the economic health of Americans, a line that could resonate in key swing states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

But he appeared to fade as the night wore on, failing to effectively press Clinton on her deepest vulnerabilities on her private emails server and long history of ethical questions.

Take Our Poll

The debate, at Hofstra University on New York's Long Island, came at a critical point of the campaign: Trump has grabbed momentum in national polls and narrowed the race in some of the most decisive swing states. The debate had the potential for him to build on that momentum with 42 days remaining before Election Day.
First signs positive for Clinton
But the first results indicated that Clinton won. A CNN/ORC poll after the clash showed Clinton had a commanding victory, by 62% to 27%. The poll suggested the debate audience was a bit more Democratic than the public as a whole, about on par with the Democratic tilt in the audience that watched the first debate in 2008 between Barack Obama and John McCain.

In all, 68% of those asked said Clinton had a better understanding of the issues, while 27% said the same of Trump. Asked whether Trump could handle the presidency, 55% said no.

It will be several days, however, until conventional wisdom about the result of the showdown gels and its impact on the campaign becomes evident. Trump appeared to do nothing to shake the strong faith in his campaign among his core supporters, though the Republican nominee may have failed to broaden his coalition among key voting blocks, minorities and women.

The showdown came at a critical point in the race. Another CNN/ORC poll released Monday found Trump edging Clinton 42% to 41% in the crucial battleground state of Colorado among likely voters in a four-way race. In Pennsylvania, another key state, the poll found Clinton in a virtual tie against Trump among likely voters at 45% to 44%.

The former secretary of state is relying on both states to help pave her way to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Nationally, CNN's Poll of Polls finds Clinton and Trump neck-and-neck 44%-42%.

Both candidates clearly understood that the central question of Monday's debate was about who had the right temperament and character to serve as President of the United States. Clinton delivered the best zinger of the night in response to criticism from Trump for staying off the campaign trail recently.

"I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate," she said. "And yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be President. And that is a good thing."
Trump's falsehoods
Clinton also repeatedly brought attention to Trump's reputation for spreading falsehoods and repeatedly tried to needle him, at one point blasting his "trumped up, trickle down" economics.

Trump, however, said he was much better suited to the burdens of the Oval Office.

"I have a winning temperament, I know how to win. She does not know how to win," he said.

The billionaire skewered Clinton on her past support for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which she declared the "gold standard" when she was secretary of state but now opposes.

Clinton's team was clearly delighted with their candidate's performance, declaring her the clear winner. Trump appeared in the "spin room" as soon as the 90 minute debate was over, telling CNN's Dana Bash "it went better than I ever thought." He also told reporters his microphone wasn't working and questioned whether that was happening on purpose.

Often in presidential debates, the atmospherics and body language are as important to winning over undecided voters as what the candidates say. On that score, Clinton went out of her way to appear unruffled and calm. She often responded to Trump's attacks with smiles and laughs. She pointedly repeatedly referred to Trump as "Donald" -- in an apparent bid to cut him down to size, not using the moniker "Mr. Trump" that he prefers.

Trump, while passionate and engaged, also appeared to play into concerns about his personality. He often spoke loudly over Clinton in a way that could have come across as condescending, apparently falling short of his goal to appear more presidential than his rival.

Monday's event was Trump's first ever one-on-one political debate -- and he has two more showdowns with Clinton to change the political narrative before the election. There have been several instances of candidates recovering from an underwhelming first debate to recapture momentum and win the presidency in November.
Powerful moments
One of the most powerful moments of the debate came when the conversation focused on the so-called birther debate following Trump's recent acknowledgment that President Barack Obama was born in the US -- a fact that has been evident for years. With Trump standing just a few feet from her, Clinton blasted him for perpetuating a "racist lie."

"He has a long record of engaging in racist behavior," Clinton said as Trump shook his head.

Trump hit back, noting Clinton's tough critiques of Obama during their bitter 2008 primary battle.

"You treated him with terrible disrespect and I watch the way you talk now about how lovely everything is ... it doesn't work that way," he said. "When you try to act holier than thou, it really doesn't work."

As the debate ended, Clinton hammered Trump over his treatment of women.

"This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs," Clinton said.

She accused Trump of calling a Latina contestant in a beauty contest "Miss Piggy" and a housekeeper because of her ethnicity, seemingly throwing Trump off as he twice asked "Where did you find this?"

Clinton repeatedly sought to correct Trump's statements -- going so far as referring viewers to fact checks on her website -- as she aimed to portray him as out of touch with the complexities of the American economy.

"I know you live in your own reality," she told Trump.
Positive note
Clinton and Trump opened the debate on a positive note by shaking hands before stationing themselves behind their podiums at Hofstra University on New York's Long Island. Their spouses, former President Bill Clinton and Melania Trump, also greeted each other before taking their seats in the debate hall.

From there, the drama quickly unfolded.

An increasingly angry Trump slammed Clinton for putting her plans to fight ISIS on her website -- and thereby tipping off America's enemy.

"Well, at least I have a plan to fight ISIS," Clinton responded, referring to his previous statements that he has a "secret" plan to destroy the terrorist group.

Battling over taxes

Clinton also hit Trump over his refusal to release his tax returns.

"Why won't he release his tax returns?" Clinton asked.

"Maybe he is not as rich as he says he is," she went on. "Maybe he is not as charitable as he claims to be," "Maybe he doesn't want the American people to know that he has paid nothing in federal taxes."

Clinton pressed Trump on the issue, saying "There is something he is hiding."

Trump replied that he would release his taxes when Clinton made public 33,000 emails that were deleted from her private email server. When Clinton said that Trump had paid no federal income tax in some years, Trump replied, "That makes me smart."

Clinton also set about Trump's business record, pointing out that he had called himself "The King of Debt" and accusing him of "stiffing" thousand of contractors who did work for his business.

When the debate turned to racial issues and crime, Clinton said that it was important for police to work together with local communities to restore trust.

Trump accused Clinton of refusing to say the phrase "law and order" and bemoaned the state of inner cities. He said that African-Americans and Hispanics were "living in hell."

"You walk down the street, you get shot," Trump said.

Clinton rebuked Trump for painting "such a dire picture" of black communities.

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Poll: Who won the first presidential debate between Trump and Clinton?

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The debate of the century delivered. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump waged a fiery battle Monday night when they appeared on stage together -- a clash of two famous personalities locked in a dead heat for the presidency.

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Who Won?

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presidential debate: who won clinton-trump smackdown? - cnn

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CNN commentators and guest analysts offer their take on Monday night's presidential candidate debate.

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Clinton Won

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Hillary Clinton scored a decisive debate victory over Donald Trump, coming off as more presidential and better prepared, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll .

By a 27-point margin, 49 percent to 22 percent, Americans who had heard at least something about Monday's presidential debate said that Clinton did a better job than Trump. Twenty-two percent said neither had done a better job, while 8 percent were unsure.

Those results are broadly in line with , which also found a sizable advantage for Clinton. (A spate of online reader "polls," which Trump has touted as showing him ahead, other scientific post-debate polls have no scientific grounding whatsoever.)

Seventy-seven percent of those polled, including a majority in both parties, said that Clinton prepared well enough for the debate, compared to just 27 percent who said the same for Trump. Even 43 percent of Republicans said that Trump should have done more preparation.

A majority, 56 percent, said that Clinton displayed a presidential temperament during the debate. Just 34 percent said the same of Trump, who claimed during the debate that his temperament was his "strongest asset."

Clinton led on laying out her positions, with half of those polled saying she did a better job of explaining her policies, 28 percent naming Trump, and 22 percent unsure. But asked which candidate's policies they most agreed with, respondents sided with her by a far narrower margin, giving her 44 percent to Trump's 40 percent.

There was also less perceived difference in the candidates' honesty. Twenty-four percent of those polled said that Clinton said untrue things very often, and 46 percent that she did so at least somewhat often. A third said that Trump very often said things that were untrue , with 53 percent saying he did so at least somewhat often.

Two-thirds of Americans polled said they'd watched at least part of the debate, while 10 percent had watched only clips or highlights, and 11 percent had only read or watched news stories about it. The opinions of those in the latter groups matter because, as research has found , coverage of a debate can have just as much impact as the debate itself, and because even those who didn't tune in may still turn out to vote. And there's generally a perception that coverage was friendlier toward Clinton. Sixty-six percent said that Clinton received more positive news coverage after the debate, while just 6 percent believed that Trump had.

There were, however, considerable differences between those who watched at least parts of the debate and those who watched only clips or news coverage, not least because the latter group was significantly more Republican. Those who watched at least part of the debate said by a 30-point margin, 53 percent to 23 percent, that Clinton won, while those who watched highlights or read news stories said so by a narrower 17-point margin, 35 percent to 18 percent.

While Democrats who'd paid attention to the debate saw it as a win for Clinton, Republicans were less enthusiastic about Trump's performance. Eighty-two percent of Democrats polled said that Clinton won, and similar percentages gave her high marks for preparation, temperament, truthfulness and policy chops.

In contrast, just 43 percent of Republicans polled said that Trump did better, with 17 percent believing that Clinton outperformed him, and 35 percent that neither candidate won the debate. A fifth said that the debate worsened their opinion of the Republican nominee. Less than a third said they believed that most Americans would say Trump had won.

Independents who were polled also favored Clinton, saying by a 14-point margin, 39 percent to 25 percent, that she won the debate over Trump. Forty-four percent felt she displayed a presidential temperament, while just 35 percent said the same of Trump.

But they reported that the debate had worsened, rather than improved, their opinions of both candidates ― by a 16-point margin in Clinton's case, and by an 11-point margin in Trump's. Majorities also thought that both candidates lied at least somewhat often during the debate.

It's still too early to know exactly how much bearing Clinton's performance in the debate will have on her performance in the polls, which gave her only a tight lead in the run-up to the event. While the debate worsened views of Trump among respondents overall, it did relatively little overall to change views of her:

Americans, though, are already anticipating a rematch. Sixty-one percent say that they're looking forward to watching future debates.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Sept. 27-Sept. 28 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov's reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error. about this project and in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found . More details on the polls' methodology are available

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Hillary Clinton Won The First Presidential Debate, Polling Finds

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Hillary Clinton scored a decisive debate victory over Donald Trump, coming off as more presidential and better prepared, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll . By a 27-point margin, 49 percent to 22 percent, Americans who had heard at least something about Monday's presidential debate said that Clinton did a better job than Trump.

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Clinton Keeps Her Cool

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Monday brought the first debate of the presidential season, but it often felt like two separate debates. One, from Hillary Clinton, was wonky, crisp, and polished; if not always inspiring, it was professional and careful. The other, from Donald Trump, was freewheeling, aggressive, and meandering, occasionally landing a hard blow but often substance-less and hard to follow. But the two debates intersected at times, sometimes raucously, as Trump repeatedly broke in to interrupt Clinton.

It was a commanding performance from the Democratic nominee. Clinton delivered a series of detailed answers on subjects ranging from race to the Middle East to tax policy. Meanwhile, she delivered a string of attacks on Trump, assailing him for stiffing contractors, refusing to release his tax returns, fomenting birtherism, and caricaturing black America. She stumbled only occasionally, but left few openings for Trump. She remained calm and often smiling as Trump repeatedly attacked her and interrupted her answers-doing it so often that moderator Lester Holt, often a spectral presence at the debate, finally cut in twice in short order to chide him. (Vox counted 40 instances; Clinton made some of her own interruptions, but fewer.) Clinton displayed a sort of swagger perhaps not seen since her hearing before Congress on Benghazi.

The Republican, on the other hand, was erratic, vague, and frequently appeared rude. Where Clinton offered sometimes dull policy prescriptions, Trump stuck to description, diagnosing problems-offshoring of jobs, violence in Chicago, the decay of American infrastructure-but providing nearly nothing in the way of solutions to them, even when pressed by Holt. He cut into Clinton's answers, interruptions that she seemed almost to welcome because of the contrast they helped draw. Trump seldom stuck to one topic in an answer. A question about why he hadn't released his tax returns somehow ended with a diatribe about the quality of American airports. (That support for infrastructure improvement was one of the few moments that won the praise of progressive commentators.) He yelled, he scowled, and, somewhat peculiarly, he sniffled through the 90-minute contretemps.

Trump seemed early on to be trying to be solicitous. "Secretary Clinton-is that OK? Yes? Good. I want you to be happy, it's very important to me," he said, with a faint smirk. But soon he couldn't resist cutting in. Clinton assailed Trump for cheering on a housing bust, saying that 9 million Americans lost their jobs. Rather than deny it, Trump boasted, "It's called business!" As the debate went on, Trump seemed to get more and more peevish. Ahead of the debate, Trump advisers told reporters that he was not preparing extensively, and while there was some speculation that they might simply be depressing expectations, it showed. By the end of the night, he looked as shell-shocked as Barack Obama at the end of the first 2012 debate against Mitt Romney.

That isn't to say that Trump didn't get a few good licks in. Employing the improvisatory, pugilistic style that served him well in the GOP primaries, he jabbed at her on several favorite topics. He worked hard to tie Clinton to NAFTA, the 1990s free-trade agreement overseen by President Bill Clinton. It's a major topic for Trump, who has found it resonates well with white-working-class voters in the Rust Belt. Having connected her with that, Trump argued that Clinton was dissembling in her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and would reverse her stance once in office.

He also assailed Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, and mentioned her invocation of the term "superpredator" during 1990s crime discussions, a term advocates have called racially coded and for which Clinton has apologized.

But the night was Clinton's. Her jabs landed time and again. (A few flat one-liners were a different matter.) As the debate ended, for example, she told the story of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe who says she became a citizen to vote against Trump. Trump tried to cut in, asking where she got the story. She also worked at length to tie Trump to the idea of trickle-down economics, a connection he readily accepted. "The wealthy are going to create tremendous jobs," he said.

She also pressed hard on why Trump had not released his tax returns. "First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be," she said, and added that he might be heavily leveraged. Then she added, "Maybe he doesn't want all of you to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes." It was bold speculation, but Trump did little to rebut it. He said that he could not release his taxes until an IRS audit was complete, although the IRS has said he is free to release his returns at any time.

Clinton was aided, at times, by Holt, who asked Trump several pointed questions. He forced the Republican to defend his espousal of the "birther" lie against Barack Obama, attempting to falsely blame Clinton and claiming that he'd been satisfied once Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011. (In fact, Trump continued to push birther theories for years afterward, only disavowing them earlier this month.) Later, when Trump tried to claim that he had opposed the war in Iraq, Holt repeatedly contradicted him. (Trump called the oft-proven fact "a mainstream media nonsense.") On balance, Holt asked Trump more pointed questions that he did Clinton, though Trump also, to be blunt, has more to answer for. The crowd, instructed to be quiet, mostly sat on its hands for the debate, but as the end approached, members got into the act, too, loudly cheering Clinton on a couple of occasions.

But Clinton was also aided by Trump. In one of the more confusing moments of the evening, he said that Clinton had "been fighting ISIS your entire adult life." The group dates back to 1999 by the most liberal definition. When Holt asked about race and policing in America, Trump delivered a version of a spiel from his stump speech, describing the squalor of inner-city crime and suggesting that stop-and-frisk could help. Clinton criticized the answer, saying Trump failed to understand the vibrancy of black communities, eliciting a noisy "ugh." He also raised eyebrows by referring to Obama as "your president." At the end, when asked whether he'd support Clinton if she won, Trump gave a meandering answer, complaining that Clinton's ads were unfair to him and he didn't "deserve" it, and saying he'd considered a harsh attack on her family but opted against it. The spiel was strange; Trump seemed to be taken aback by the pressures on a presidential candidate. Only under duress from Holt did Trump say he would support a President Hillary Clinton.

Historically, debates have tended to have little effect on the ultimate result of the election, and little lasting effect on polls. But this was precisely the performance Clinton had wanted. With polls showing a dead heat, Democrats have been beginning to panic, with the pitch increasing ahead of the debate, as supporters wondered whether Clinton could perform, and whether Trump would shoot himself in the foot or manage to appear presidential. It's also tough to predict the response of voters to a debate, and while Trump performances during the GOP primary were often mediocre at best, he still scored high marks with his supporters.

But Clinton's delight was barely hidden by the end of the night. When Trump concluded an increasingly angry spiel directed at her-"I have a winning temperament. I know how to win"-the Democrat paused for a brief moment, smiled at the camera, said, "Woo! Okay!" and did a little shimmy before answering. It was the happiest she had looked in public in the last 20 months.

- David A. Graham

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How a Cool Clinton Drove Trump Over the Edge

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Monday brought the first debate of the presidential season, but it often felt like two separate debates. One, from Hillary Clinton, was wonky, crisp, and polished; if not always inspiring, it was professional and careful. The other, from Donald Trump, was freewheeling, aggressive, and meandering, occasionally landing a hard blow but often substance-less and hard to follow.

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Who won?

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We ranked the candidates' performances in Monday's contest.

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Debate Transcript with fact check

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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went head to head Monday night in the first presidential debate.

NPR's politics team, with help from reporters and editors who cover national security, immigration, business, foreign policy and more, live annotated the debate. Portions of the debate with added analysis are underlined in yellow, followed by context and fact checks.
Note: The transcript on this page was updated live as the debate proceeded.
Correction

A prior version of this fact check incorrectly said the first federal chief security officer position was vacant. In fact, retired Brig. Gen. Gregory J. Touhill started in that position last week. The Obama administration agrees the federal government needs more and stronger cyber talent, and it issued a workforce strategy earlier this year.

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Fact Check: Trump And Clinton Debate For The First Time

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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went head to head Monday night in the first presidential debate. NPR's politics team, with help from reporters and editors who cover national security, immigration, business, foreign policy and more, live annotated the debate. Portions of the debate with added analysis are underlined in yellow, followed by context and fact checks.