Final Debate: Clinton Vs Trump
The final debate between the two US presidential candidates ended a short while ago. The showdown was moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace
Supreme Courts and interpretation of the constitution
The debate took a calm start with the 1st question addressing the direction that the Supreme court should take the country and the candidates view on on how the constitution should be interpreted.
First of all, where do you want to see the [US Supreme] Court take the country, and secondly, what’s your view on how the constitution should be interpreted: Do the founders’ words mean what they say, or is it a living document to apply responsibly according to circumstances?
Clinton was prepped and ready as she was expected to be and pointed out that the “Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American people..not on the side of powerful coperations and the wealthy”
She also explained that the Supreme Court must stand up on behalf of Women’s rights and LGBT rights.
“Supreme Courts what its all about” said Donald Trump
Donald Trump explained his stance stating that he will appoint 20 justices and also claimed that the the Supreme Courts will uphold the 2nd amendment.
“The justices that I’m going to appoint will be pro-life, they will have a conservative bent, they will be protecting the Second Amendment, they are great scholars in all cases, and they’re people of tremendous respect” he said
Gun Laws
Both candidates were presented with an opportunity to explain their stance on the second amendment.
“I understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership. It goes back to the founding of our country” said Clinton
Clinton pointed out that she was not against the second amendment but pointed out that with 33,000 gun-realted death a year there is dire need for comprehensive background checks while closing the online loophole and the gun show loophole.
“I see no conflict between saving people’s lives and defending the Second Amendment” she said
Clinton squeezed in her first jab at this point charging that Trump was being heavily backed by the NRA and that “the gun lobby’s on his side, they’re running millions of dollars of ads” against her campaign
Trump charged that gun laws and gun violence have little correlation
“In Chicago, which has the toughest gun laws in the United States, probably you could say by far they have more gun violence than any other city. So we have the toughest laws and you have tremendous gun violence” he said
He further added that his camp will appoint justices that will feel very seriously about the Second Amendment and will not do damage to the Second Amendment.
Abortion
“Do you want the court, including the justices that you will name, to overturn Roe v. Wade, which includes, in fact states, a woman’s right to abortion?” questioned the moderator
Trump in reply stated that he will appoint Justices who are pro-life and the courts will over-turn the decision on Roe v. Wade automatically and if not “it will go back to the states and the states will then make a determination”
Clinton in reply expressed her support for the decision in the case “which guarantees a constitutional right to a woman to make the most intimate, most difficult in many cases decisions about her health care”
“So many states are putting very stringent regulations on women that block them from exercising that choice to the extent that they are defunding Planned Parenthood” charged Clinton
The potentially first female president of the country was strong in her stance and was aggressive in her delivery regarding the issue.
“I will defend Planned Parenthood. I will defend Roe v. Wade, and I will defend women’s rights to make their own health care decisions.” she said
She went on to charge that she opposes the school of thought that deems women to be punished for abortions
“He said women should be punished, that there should be some form of punishment for women who obtain abortions. And I could just not be more opposed to that kind of thinking” said Clinton
Clinton was also questioned on how far she believes the right to abortion goes and on her vote to against a ban on late-term partial-birth abortions
She explained that Roe v. Wade very clearly sets out that there can be regulations on abortion so long as the life and the health of the mother are taken into account
” I do not think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions. So you can regulate if you are doing so with the life and the health of the mother taken into account” she answered
“I think it’s terrible if you go with what Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.” said Trump
It seemed like the initial calmness was wondering away as the two candidates were now making polite punches.
“Well, that is not what happens in these cases. And using that kind of scare rhetoric is just terribly unfortunate” said Clinton
She charged that this is not a decision that a governing body should be making and brought up examples of China and Romania
“I can tell you the government has no business in the decisions that women make with their families in accordance with their faith, with medical advice, and I will stand up for that right.” she said
Immigration
Trump was the first to respond and called the Clinton’s plan to give amnesty ‘a disaster and very unfair to all the people who are waiting in line for many years’
“Children have been killed, brutally killed by people who came into the country illegally” he said and further adding that drugs are pouring in through the border and Hillary wants to give amnesty and she wants to have open borders.
” The Border Patrol agency, 16,500-plus ICE last week endorsed me. First time they’ve ever endorsed a candidate. It means their job is tougher, but they know what’s going on. They know it better than anybody. They want strong borders” said Trump
He also added that Hilary Clinton and Obama’s mistakes were now being represented through heroin that pours across the southern borders and destroying the youth.
“It’s poisoning the blood of their youth and plenty of other people.” he charged
He went on to explain that the country needs a wall in order to protect the border and that one of his first acts will be to get all of the drug lords out of the country.
“We have some bad hombres here and we’re going to get them out” he said
“I don’t want to see the deportation force that Donald has talked about in action in our country” said Hillary Clinton
Clinton explained that her approach would be a comprehensive immigration reform plan that includes border security and getting rid of violent persons.
“When it comes to the wall that Donald talks about building, he went to Mexico. He had a meeting with the Mexican president. Didn’t even raise it. He choked, then got into a Twitter war because the Mexican president said, “We’re not paying for that wall.” said Clinton
She explained that the USA is both a nation of immigrants and a nation of law and can act accordingly, and within the first 100 days a path to citizenship will be introduced with immigration reform.
Trump did no take Clinton’s comment on his meeting with the Mexican President quietly and was quick to respond.
“We will be doing very much better with Mexico on trade deals, believe me, than the NAFTA deal by her husband, one of the worst deals of any kind signed by anybody” he said
He added that Hillary Clinton fought for the wall in 2006 or thereabouts and now, she never gets anything done, so naturally the wall wasn’t built.
“I voted for border security..” said Clinton
She further charged that Trump started his campaign calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals and drug dealers and that bringing undocumented immigrants out from the shadows and putting them in the formal economy will be good because employers can’t exploit them and undercut wages
“Donald knows a lot about this; he used undocumented labor to build Trump Tower said Clinton who further added that he underpaid undocumented workers and when they complained Trump threatened to have them deported
“President Obama has moved millions of people out. Nobody knows about it, nobody talks about it. But under Obama, millions of people have been moved out of this country, they’ve been deported. ” replied Trump who went on to note that it is unfair that there are millions of people who did get citizenship the right way and those processes will be sped up
The latest mark on the Clinton campaign, which was the leak of speeches (through Wikileaks) made by Clinton to big banks was brought up by Chris Wallace
“In a speech you gave to a Brazilian bank for which you were paid $225,000 we’ve learned from the Wikileaks that you said this and I want to quote, my dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders” charged Chris Wallace
Clinton in reply stated that the full sentence was regarding energy
“I was talking about energy. You know, we trade more energy with our neighbors than we trade with the rest of the world combined. And I do want us to have an electric grid, energy system that crosses borders. I think that would be a great benefit to us.” she said
She was also quick to defend herself, charging that what’s really important about Wikileaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans and they have hacked American websites, American accounts of private people, of institutions, then they have given that information to Wikileaks for the purpose of putting it on the internet.
“This has come from the highest levels of the Russian government, clearly from Putin himself, in an effort, as 17 of our intelligence agencies have confirmed to influence our election” she charged
It was Trump who brought the debate back on point
“That was a great pivot off the fact that she wants open borders, okay? How did we get off to Putin?” he said and went on to reiterate his position on immigration.
He noted that Clinton wants open borders and people are going to pour into the country and people are going to come in from Syria and Clinton wants 55% more people than Barack Obama, and he has thousands and thousands of people and they have no idea where they come from
“We are going to stop radical Islamic terrorism in this country. She won’t even mention the words and neither will president Obama” he said
Trump did not stop there and went on to express his position on Putin.
“I don’t know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good.” he said noting that if Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good
“We’re in very serious trouble because we have a country with tremendous numbers of nuclear warheads, 1,800, by the way, where they expanded and we didn’t — 1800 nuclear warheads, and she’s playing chicken” charged Trump
The Trump-Clinton banter was quick to follow.
Economy
Clinton explained that her plan was based on growing the economy, giving middle class families many more opportunities while having the biggest jobs program since World War II, jobs and infrastructure and advanced manufacturing
“I think we can compete with high wage countries, and I believe we should” she said and further added that her plan also involved new jobs and clean energy not only to fight climate change, but to create new opportunities and new business to do more to help small businesses.
She went on to note that minimum wage will be raised because people who live in poverty, who work full-time should not still be in poverty and that her presidency will ensure women get equal pay. She also said that she would call for an education system that starts with preschool and goes through college alongside a more technical education in high schools and community colleges with real apprenticeships to prepare people for the real jobs of the future.
Trump stated that Clinton’s plan is going to raise taxes and even double taxes and that her tax plan is a disaster.
“We’re going to do a lot of things for college tuition, but the rest of the public’s going be paying for it. We’ll have a massive, massive tax increase under Hillary Clinton’s plan.” he said
He added that his economic plan would have nations paying America for protection
“They have to pay up. We’re protecting people. They have to pay up. I’m a big fan of NATO, but they have to pay up” he said
He also added that trade deals will be re-negotiated and there will be more free trade than right now
“Our jobs are being taken out. NAFTA, one of the worst deals ever. Our jobs are being sucked out of our economy.” he said
He went on to state that NAFTA will be renegotiated and that jobs will be brought back in to the country
“And if I can’t make a great deal, then we’re going to terminate NAFTA and great new deals. We’ll have trade, but we’ll terminate it, we’ll make a great trade deal. And if we can’t, we’re going to go a separate way because it has been a disaster”
He further noted that there will be massive tax cuts as well as business tax cuts and in turn they will hire people and that he will also bring $2.5 trillion that’s offshore back into the country.
Fitness to be president of the United States
Chris Wallace questioned Trump on the recently leaked video and on the sexual assault cases that have come up
He noted that those stories have been largely debunked and that those stories were result of the Clinton campaigns attempts to demerit him
“Those people, I don’t know those people. I have a feeling how they came. I believe it was her campaign that did it” he said
Clinton charged that every time Donald has pushed on something which is obviously uncomfortable like what these women are saying, he immediately goes to denying responsibility and it’s not just about women.
“He never apologizes or says he is sorry for anything.” she said
Trump stated that in terms of taxes, Clinton’s donors have done the same thing he has.
“Your donors and your special interests are doing the same thing as I do, except even more. So you should have changed the law, but you won’t change the law because you take in so much money” he said
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