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The Morning After the Debate, Donald Trump Goes on the Attack The Morning After the Debate, Donald Trump Goes on the Attack
(about 7 hours later)
A defensive Donald J. Trump lashed out at the debate moderator, complained about his microphone and threatened to make Bill Clinton’s marital infidelity a campaign issue in a television appearance on Tuesday just hours after his first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton. Donald J. Trump lashed out wildly on Tuesday in the aftermath of a disappointing first debate with Hillary Clinton, scolding the moderator, criticizing a beauty pageant winner for her physique and raising the prospect of an all-out attack on Bill Clinton’s marital infidelities in the final stretch of the campaign.
And defying conventions of civility and political common sense, Mr. Trump leveled cutting personal criticism at a Miss Universe pageant winner, held up by Mrs. Clinton in Monday night’s debate as an example of her opponent’s disrespect for women. Having worked assiduously in recent weeks to cultivate a more disciplined demeanor on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump decisively cast aside that approach on Tuesday morning. As Mrs. Clinton embarked on an ebullient campaign swing through North Carolina, aiming to press her newfound advantage, Mr. Trump vented his grievances in full public view.
Mr. Trump insisted in the Fox News appearance that he had been right to disparage the beauty queen, Alicia Machado, for her physique. Sounding weary and impatient as he called into a Fox News program, Mr. Trump criticized Lester Holt, the NBC News anchor, for asking “unfair questions” during the debate Monday evening, and speculated that someone might have tampered with his microphone. Mr. Trump repeated his charge that Mrs. Clinton lacked the “stamina” to be president, a claim critics have described as sexist, and suggested that in the future he might raise Mr. Clinton’s past indiscretions.
And defying conventions of civility and political common sense, Mr. Trump leveled cutting personal criticism at a beauty pageant winner, Alicia Machado, whom Mrs. Clinton held up in Monday night’s debate as an example of Mr. Trump’s disrespect for women.
Mr. Trump insisted on Fox that he had been right to disparage the former Miss Universe because of her weight.
“She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem,” said Mr. Trump, who was the pageant’s executive producer at the time. “Not only that — her attitude. And we had a real problem with her.”“She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem,” said Mr. Trump, who was the pageant’s executive producer at the time. “Not only that — her attitude. And we had a real problem with her.”
Mrs. Clinton mentioned Ms. Machado by name, quoting insults that Ms. Machado has attributed to Mr. Trump and noting that the pageant winner had become a citizen to vote in the 2016 election. During the debate, he showed disbelief at the charge that he had ridiculed Ms. Machado, asking Mrs. Clinton repeatedly, “Where did you find this?” Mr. Trump’s setback in the debate represents a critical test in the final six weeks of the presidential race. Having drawn closer to Mrs. Clinton in the polls, Mr. Trump now faces an intensified clash over his personal temperament and his attitudes toward women and minorities — areas of grave concern for many voters that were at the center of the candidates’ confrontation on Monday.
But Mr. Trump abruptly shifted course a few hours later, with comments that threatened to escalate and extend an argument that appeared to be one of his weakest moments of the debate. Against Mr. Trump’s brooding, Mrs. Clinton cut a strikingly different profile on the campaign trail on Tuesday, emerging emboldened from her encounter with the Republican nominee. At a rally in Raleigh, N.C., Mrs. Clinton, brandishing her opponent’s debate stumbles, assailed Mr. Trump’s comments suggesting he avoided paying taxes and welcomed the 2008 financial crisis as a buying opportunity.
Mrs. Clinton assailed him late in the debate for deriding women as “pigs, slobs and dogs.” Mr. Trump had no ready answer for the charge of sexism, and offered a muddled reply that cited his past feud with the comedian Rosie O’Donnell. “What kind of person would want to root for nine million families losing their homes?” Mrs. Clinton asked the lively crowd. “One who should never be president, is the answer to that question.”
His comments attacking Ms. Machado recalled his frequent practice, during the Republican primaries and much of the general election campaign, of bickering harshly with political bystanders, sometimes savaging them in charged language that ended up alienating voters. In the past, he has made extended personal attacks on the Muslim parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq and on a Hispanic federal judge. Having shaken at least temporarily the malaise of the past month, Mrs. Clinton must now seek to gain a durable upper hand over Mr. Trump, who has drawn close to her in the polls with a more sharply focused message on trade, immigration and national security.
Trump aides considered it a sign of progress in recent weeks that the Republican nominee was more focused on criticizing Mrs. Clinton, and less prone to veering off into such self-destructive public feuds. Mr. Trump’s comportment on Tuesday threatened to forfeit his gains of the past month, and recalled his practice during the Republican primaries and much of the general election, of belittling political bystanders in language that alienated voters, like attacking the Muslim parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq and a Hispanic federal judge.
Going after Ms. Machado may be especially tone deaf for Mr. Trump, at a moment in the race when he is seeking to reverse voters’ ingrained negative views of his personality. Sixty percent of Americans in an ABC News/Washington Post poll this month said they thought Mr. Trump was biased against women and minorities, and Mrs. Clinton has been airing a television commercial highlighting his history of caustic and graphic comments about women. It remains to be seen if Mr. Trump will approach the remainder of the race with the unfiltered abandon of his comments Tuesday morning. The fear among Republicans is that Mr. Trump will confront adversity by continuing to swing impulsively at politically inopportune targets, dragging the party again into needless and damaging feuds, as he did for most of the summer.
Mrs. Clinton pressed her advantage on Tuesday, telling reporters on her campaign plane that Mr. Trump had raised “offensive and off-putting” views that called into question his fitness for the presidency. The notion of raising Mr. Clinton’s infidelity is particularly controversial among Mr. Trump’s advisers, who have sent conflicting signals about that line of attack.
“The real point,” she said, “is about temperament and fitness and qualification to hold the most important, hardest job in the world.” Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said in a CNN interview that he deserved credit for holding back from that particular subject, saying Mr. Trump had been “polite and a gentleman.”
Both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton will strike out on the campaign trail on Tuesday with the goal of framing the debate’s outcome to their advantage. While Mr. Trump is in Florida, Mrs. Clinton plans to campaign in North Carolina, a traditionally Republican state where polls show her and Mr. Trump virtually tied. But Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and a close confidant of Mr. Trump’s, called for a far harsher approach. Mr. Trump, he told a reporter for the website Elite Daily, had been “too reserved” in his confrontation with Mrs. Clinton.
It will likely take a few days to measure any shift in the race after the candidates’ clash at Hofstra University on Long Island. Polls had shown the presidential race narrowing almost to a dead heat on the national level, with Mr. Trump drawing close to Mrs. Clinton in several swing states where she had long held an advantage. Mr. Giuliani, who like Mr. Trump is on his third marriage, recommended attacking Mrs. Clinton for having questioned Monica Lewinsky’s credibility in claiming an affair with Mr. Clinton, and he called Mrs. Clinton “too stupid to be president.”
But Mr. Trump appeared thrown on Tuesday by his uneven performance the night before, offering a series of different explanations for the results. On Fox, he cited “unfair questions” posed by the moderator, Lester Holt of NBC News, and insinuated that someone might have tampered with his microphone. Should Mr. Trump follow the path prescribed by Mr. Giuliani, it could transform the final six weeks of his candidacy into an onslaught of unrestricted personal vituperation — a risky course that would probably please Mr. Trump’s political base at the cost of his broader appeal.
Moving forward in his contest with Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump said he might “hit her harder,” perhaps raising the issue of “her husband’s women.” Should Mr. Trump opt for that risky approach, he could begin to do so during a campaign swing in Florida on Tuesday. For the moment, Mrs. Clinton answered Mr. Trump’s scattershot attacks with a dismissive shrug, telling reporters that Mr. Trump was free to run whatever kind of campaign he preferred. On board her campaign plane, she plainly relished her moment of apparent triumph, and poked fun at Mr. Trump’s morning lamentations.
And in another indication that Mr. Trump has little intention of shifting his tone, the Republican nominee repeated the attack on Mrs. Clinton that spurred their Monday exchange about gender in the first place: that she lacks the physical vigor to be president. “Anybody who complains about the microphone,” she said, “is not having a good night.”
“I don’t believe she has the stamina to be the president,” he said on Fox. “You know, she’s home all the time.” But Democrats also signaled on Tuesday that they would welcome an extended battle with Mr. Trump over matters of temperament and personal character. Priorities USA Action, a “super PAC” supporting Mrs. Clinton, released a television ad highlighting a debate exchange in which Mr. Trump said his temperament was his “strongest asset,” along with clips of Mr. Trump using obscene and violent language.
Mrs. Clinton was dismissive on Tuesday of Mr. Trump’s barbs, shrugging off a question about his threat to go after Mrs. Clinton and her husband personally and his dismay about the microphone. “Anybody who complains about the microphone is not having a good night,” she said. And Mrs. Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, said in television interviews that Mr. Trump had appeared “flustered” and “ran out of gas.” During a campaign stop in Orlando, Fla., Mr. Kaine said Mr. Trump was too unsteady for the White House.
Mrs. Clinton’s allies struck a similarly confident pose, roundly declaring victory in the debate after spending much of the last month on the defensive. “If you’re that rattled in a debate,” he said, “try being president.”
Mrs. Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, cheered her debate performance in a round of morning television interviews, and he sought to link her steadier approach during the evening with her qualifications for the presidency. Mr. Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, also toured the morning TV programs, but with an upbeat message. Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Mr. Pence proclaimed Monday had been a “great night” in which Mr. Trump showcased the “kind of energy” and the “kind of leadership” that had animated his campaign.
Stopping at a campaign office in Orlando, Fla., Mr. Kaine likened Mr. Trump to a reeling fighter, saying he was “leaning up against the ropes like a boxer who was about to go down for a TKO.”
“If you’re that rattled in a debate,” Mr. Kaine said, “try being president.”
Mr. Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, also toured the morning TV programs with an upbeat message. Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Mr. Pence proclaimed Monday to have been a “great night” in which Mr. Trump showcased the “kind of energy” and the “kind of leadership” that had animated his campaign.
“Donald Trump took command of the stage, and I think the American people saw his leadership qualities,” Mr. Pence said.“Donald Trump took command of the stage, and I think the American people saw his leadership qualities,” Mr. Pence said.
But as has become customary for the Republican ticket, Mr. Trump’s provocative remarks are likely to overshadow his running mate’s far more cautious and conventional arguments.But as has become customary for the Republican ticket, Mr. Trump’s provocative remarks are likely to overshadow his running mate’s far more cautious and conventional arguments.
And Mr. Pence joined Mr. Trump in criticizing Mr. Holt for his handling of the debate, pointing to the absence of questions for Mrs. Clinton regarding her family’s foundation and the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, when she was secretary of state.And Mr. Pence joined Mr. Trump in criticizing Mr. Holt for his handling of the debate, pointing to the absence of questions for Mrs. Clinton regarding her family’s foundation and the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, when she was secretary of state.