Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager says Donald Trump didn’t come prepared to answer questions about his foreign policy plans.
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The forum, sponsored by NBC News and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, was held September 7 at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. “Today” show host Matt Lauer, and members of the military and veterans in the audience, questioned the candidates separately. While the candidates never appeared on stage together, the session served as a preview of sorts for their highly-anticipated presidential debates.
And asked Thursday whether she believes she is being held to a different standard than Trump, Clinton – who on Wednesday asked that she be “judged on the totality of my record” – responded that it was a “fair question”.
Trump said at the forum that he’d be open to “working” a way for undocumented immigrants to serve in the U.S. military – a sharp contrast to his tone during a speech in Arizona last week where he said he would focus on deporting undocumented immigrants from the country. Here are five important moments from that hour.
The former secretary of state also repeated “it was a mistake” to have used a personal email account while leading the department, and that she would “certainly not do it again”.
Clinton said she has said “many, many times” that she has “always thought this was going to be a close election”. “I hope that they don’t tell him anything”. “It was something that should not have been done”, Clinton said. “There were no headers”.
Clinton also accused Trump of not having a plan to defeat ISIS – a factor that should be “disqualifying” for voters, she said. “If they were, they would not get to the President in the first place”. “We have to do a better job of not only collecting and analyzing the intelligence we do have, but distributing it much more quickly down the ladder to state and local law enforcement”, she told Lauer.
But that wouldn’t include committing more forces to the effort.
Clinton struck a similar tone when discussing her support for the Iraq war, although not without pointing out that Trump also backed the invasion but has refused to acknowledge his support. “We have got to take them on in the arena of ideas”, she said, adding that partnering with Muslims was essential for that. She vowed to defeat the Islamic State group “without committing American ground troops” to Iraq or Syria.
The former governor of New Mexico added that Syria is “a mess” and “the only way we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russian Federation to diplomatically bring that (to) an end”.
Billed as the Commander-in-Chief Forum, the town hall style interaction set on a decommissioned aircraft carrier in NY was meant to compare and contrast the qualities of the two candidates to be the leader of the world’s most powerful military.
“The generals under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have not been successful”.
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While Trump has often complained that USA forces are not large enough or well-equipped, he’s also said that he’d save money by cutting waste and ensuring that contractors aren’t getting sweetheart deals due to their connections or lobbying efforts.
