Before I write about the first presidential debate, I wanted to give everyone the direct links for where to get your absentee ballot (https://www.vote.org/absentee-ballot/ ) and where to register to vote (https://www.vote.org/register-to-vote/). The last day to register to vote is October 19th! Let your voice be heard!
But now onto the important stuff: the first presidential debate. It was the most watched debate in history with 80 million views. Most of us felt like we were sitting down to watch a reality show. There were so many drinking games being shared on social media, that many of you may have played; as well as everyone’s Snapchat stories being filled with pictures of the nominees with filters on them. In short, many people went into this viewing it as a joke.
However, according to all major news sources, Hillary Clinton was the clear winner. For this debate, many viewers wanted to see a) a little more knowledge from Trump and b) a little less knowledge from Hillary, but a more relaxed presence. While neither candidate did what was expected of them, Clinton came off on top. Sure, her email scandal was brought up, to which she very maturely accepted responsibility and continued to dominate Trump when answering the questions at hand. As Trump continuously lost his cool and yelled over her, Clinton waited until he was done and answered the questions at hand in a civilized manner. Another big take away from this debate is that Clinton really showed us that she’s not going to allow Trump to bully her. While he kept interrupting her to tell her she was “wrong” in some of the statements she was making about him, Politifact actually made a fact-check chart from the debate:
As you can see, both lied to an extent in what they said. But the main point is that despite Trump yelling about how Clinton was “wrong” in what she was saying about him, she was actually very right and he was just denying it to make her look like she was lying. They topics they covered ranged from jobs/ the economy to ISIS, race, and immigration. While both clearly were not 100% truthful, Clinton’s “mostly true” lines up with Trump’s “false” on the fact-checker. This is very telling to me as to who would be more trustworthy as a president and at this point, I do not believe that there is a lesser of two evils anymore. Hillary Clinton was the obvious winner of debate number one but tune in for the second debate October 9th!