Sunday, October 30, 2016

What unforced errors did Donald Trump make in the first debate?

Debating the moderator.

There were several points where Lester Holt corrected the record after Donald Trump said something obviously false, and Donald doubled down every time. Here are the top examples in my opinion:

  1. Blatantly lying about his initial support of the Iraq war. He was asked how his position changed with respect to the Iraq war, since he initially supported it. Trump denied he had ever supported the Iraq war, despite a public (albeit half-hearted) endorsement of it in 2002 in an interview Howard Stern. (1) He could have easily said he was “not sure at first,” but he insists he was against it from the start. This is easily fact check-able and it was a foolish thing to insist upon.
  2. Insisting that the ongoing audit was the reason he wouldn’t release his taxes. It was clearly pointed out by the moderator that there is no law, or rule, against releasing one’s taxes during the course of an audit. (2) Again, Trump insisted upon his rationale, declaring that he would release his taxes the moment the audit was complete. He was clearly hoping that voters weren’t listening, and evading any factual basis for why he should release them. Bad look.
  3. His explanation for his reversal on the “Birther” issue was nonsense. Trump was asked why he switched his position on the “Birther” issue, having recently recanted his claims that Obama was not a native-born U.S. Citizen. He said that since the birth certificate had been released, he was now satisfied. Holt pointed out that the birth certificate had been released in in 2011, yet Trump had only recently changed his opinion now, in 2016. So why the sudden change? Trump had no answer for this.

There was more, but these examples of Trump lying, or getting the facts blatantly wrong, stuck out the most to me. They were awkward moments in the debate, and made him look dishonest and unprepared.

(1) Donald Trump keeps revising history on Iraq War support.

(2) IRS: Nothing prevents Trump from releasing tax returns



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