Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to Matt Lauer during the Commander in Chief Forum in Manhattan, New York, on Tuesday night, September 7. Both candidates believe they have the upper hand, with Clinton contrasting her experience with Trump’s unpredictability and the Republican arguing that Americans anxious about their safety will be left with more of the same if they elect Obama’s former secretary of state.
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Mrs Clinton was referring to the airstrikes the United States launched against Libyan forces, but her political opponents – and the Trump campaign – likely will point to that line and cite the killing of USA ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as evidence of her indifference to their deaths.
Clinton on controversy about her email: “And for all the viewers watching here tonight, I have a lot of experience dealing with classified materials, starting when I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee, going into the four years as Secretary of State”.
Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said she wouldn’t put ground troops in Iraq “ever again” and would not use boots on the ground to defeat ISIS.
For those keeping track at home, Mrs Clinton has gone from asserting that she never relayed classified information to that she never sent “marked” classified documents to that she never sent material with classified headers.
Mr Trump cited Mr Putin’s 82% approval ratings, said he was a leader with “strong control” over his country and compared him favourably to President Barack Obama. Trump has even gone so far as to say on his campaign site that he plans to fire Veteran’s Affairs supervisors and revamp the program with new leadership. “If I win, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is”.
“This will require military warfare, but also cyberwarfare, financial warfare and ideological warfare”, Trump said during an address in Philadelphia.
“We need change”, the NY businessman said, arguing that he will bring a “common sense” approach to the demands of being commander-in-chief.
While Clinton attempted to weasel her way out by falsely claiming that she hasn’t made excuses for her behavior, Lauer came back with one specific angle of the e-mail scandal in the sensitivity of the drone program to which Clinton admitted to e-mailing about but claimed it was safe “because of course there were no discussions of any of the covert actions in process, being determined, about whether or not to go forward”.
At the forum, Clinton called her vote in favor of the Iraq war a “mistake”, but noted that Trump also initially supported the 2003 invasion and has shifted his position in the years since. “I will do everything in my power to make sure our men and women in the military are fully prepared for any challenge they may have to face on our behalf, but I will also be as careful as I can in making the most significant decisions any president and commander and chief can make about sending our men and women into harms way”. “We need to be careful and vet carefully, but it would be a special circumstance, yes”.
“I don’t blame Lauer for asking the email question”.
Trump has condemned the war during his presidential campaign and said he would avoid lengthy conflicts in the Middle East.
This will be a very important night for Trump he will have to have answers to tough questions and not deal with generalities.
“Matt, there is no evidence, of course anything is possible, but what is factual is the State Department’s system was hacked”, Clinton said.
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A member in the audience asked Trump how he would deescalate tension with Russian Federation. In the past Putin has called Trump “bright” and “talented”.
