Official Presidential Debate thread. Who wins?
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Hillary could have went in for the kill but I think you're some more tapes and stuff post to drop between now and end of the month so she just going to let nature take its place with Trump
I agree 100%.
Hillary answered the questions.
Stop projecting what Trump does onto Hillary
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/us/politics/transcript-second-debate.html?_r=0
at times i question why do i bother....
I'm going to give you this one reply...
reading is fundamental homes!
(she said and i quote)
"they aint answering the questions"
Yeah... My personal belief is that she wants him to stay in the race. She could have dropped the Mic on several of Trumps comments but she allowed him to just dig in deeper. In my opinion, the visuals from last nights debate will have more of an impact then what was said.
Your just making shit up. Read the transcript. Just because the kid you watched it with said it does t make it true. As an adult you should have corrected the child.
CLINTON: Well, thank you. Are you a teacher? Yes, I think that that’s a very good question, because I’ve heard from lots of teachers and parents about some of their concerns about some of the things that are being said and done in this campaign.
And I think it is very important for us to make clear to our children that our country really is great because we’re good. And we are going to respect one another, lift each other up. We are going to be looking for ways to celebrate our diversity, and we are going to try to reach out to every boy and girl, as well as every adult, to bring them in to working on behalf of our country.
I have a very positive and optimistic view about what we can do together. That’s why the slogan of my campaign is “Stronger Together,” because I think if we work together, if we overcome the divisiveness that sometimes sets Americans against one another, and instead we make some big goals — and I’ve set forth some big goals, getting the economy to work for everyone, not just those at the top, making sure that we have the best education system from preschool through college and making it affordable, and so much else.
If we set those goals and we go together to try to achieve them, there’s nothing in my opinion that America can’t do. So that’s why I hope that we will come together in this campaign. Obviously, I’m hoping to earn your vote, I’m hoping to be elected in November, and I can promise you, I will work with every American.
I want to be the president for all Americans, regardless of your political beliefs, where you come from, what you look like, your religion. I want us to heal our country and bring it together because that’s, I think, the best way for us to get the future that our children and our grandchildren deserve.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, thank you. Mr. Trump, you have two minutes.
TRUMP: Well, I actually agree with that. I agree with everything she said. I began this campaign because I was so tired of seeing such foolish things happen to our country. This is a great country. This is a great land. I’ve gotten to know the people of the country over the last year-and-a-half that I’ve been doing this as a politician. I cannot believe I’m saying that about myself, but I guess I have been a politician.
TRUMP: And my whole concept was to make America great again. When I watch the deals being made, when I watch what’s happening with some horrible things like Obamacare, where your health insurance and health care is going up by numbers that are astronomical, 68 percent, 59 percent, 71 percent, when I look at the Iran deal and how bad a deal it is for us, it’s a one-sided transaction where we’re giving back $150 billion to a terrorist state, really, the number one terror state, we’ve made them a strong country from really a very weak country just three years ago.
When I look at all of the things that I see and all of the potential that our country has, we have such tremendous potential, whether it’s in business and trade, where we’re doing so badly. Last year, we had almost $800 billion trade deficit. In other words, trading with other countries. We had an $800 billion deficit. It’s hard to believe. Inconceivable.
You say who’s making these deals? We’re going the make great deals. We’re going to have a strong border. We’re going to bring back law and order. Just today, policemen was shot, two killed. And this is happening on a weekly basis. We have to bring back respect to law enforcement. At the same time, we have to take care of people on all sides. We need justice.
But I want to do things that haven’t been done, including fixing and making our inner cities better for the African-American citizens that are so great, and for the Latinos, Hispanics, and I look forward to doing it. It’s called make America great again.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump. The question from Patrice was about are you both modeling positive and appropriate behavior for today’s youth? We received a lot of questions online, Mr. Trump, about the tape that was released on Friday, as you can imagine. You called what you said locker room banter. You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?
TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that at all. I don’t think you understood what was — this was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.
You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, where you have — and, frankly, drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over, where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medieval times. We haven’t seen anything like this, the carnage all over the world.
And they look and they see. Can you imagine the people that are, frankly, doing so well against us with ISIS? And they look at our country and they see what’s going on.
Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. But it’s locker room talk, and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS. We’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment. And I will tell you, I will take care of ISIS.
COOPER: So, Mr. Trump...
TRUMP: And we should get on to much more important things and much bigger things.
COOPER: Just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?
TRUMP: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.
COOPER: So, for the record, you’re saying you never did that?
TRUMP: I’ve said things that, frankly, you hear these things I said. And I was embarrassed by it. But I have tremendous respect for women.
COOPER: Have you ever done those things?
TRUMP: And women have respect for me. And I will tell you: No, I have not. And I will tell you that I’m going to make our country safe. We’re going to have borders in our country, which we don’t have now. People are pouring into our country, and they’re coming in from the Middle East and other places.
We’re going to make America safe again. We’re going to make America great again, but we’re going to make America safe again. And we’re going to make America wealthy again, because if you don’t do that, it just — it sounds harsh to say, but we have to build up the wealth of our nation.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: Right now, other nations are taking our jobs and they’re taking our wealth.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: And that’s what I want to talk about.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, do you want to respond?
CLINTON: Well, like everyone else, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking over the last 48 hours about what we heard and saw. You know, with prior Republican nominees for president, I disagreed with them on politics, policies, principles, but I never questioned their fitness to serve.
Donald Trump is different. I said starting back in June that he was not fit to be president and commander-in-chief. And many Republicans and independents have said the same thing. What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women. And he has said that the video doesn’t represent who he is.
But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is. Because we’ve seen this throughout the campaign. We have seen him insult women. We’ve seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to ten. We’ve seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter. We saw him after the first debate spend nearly a week denigrating a former Miss Universe in the harshest, most personal terms.
So, yes, this is who Donald Trump is. But it’s not only women, and it’s not only this video that raises questions about his fitness to be our president, because he has also targeted immigrants, African- Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims, and so many others.
So this is who Donald Trump is. And the question for us, the question our country must answer is that this is not who we are. That’s why — to go back to your question — I want to send a message — we all should — to every boy and girl and, indeed, to the entire world that America already is great, but we are great because we are good, and we will respect one another, and we will work with one another, and we will celebrate our diversity.
CLINTON: These are very important values to me, because this is the America that I know and love. And I can pledge to you tonight that this is the America that I will serve if I’m so fortunate enough to become your president.
RADDATZ: And we want to get to some questions from online...
TRUMP: Am I allowed to respond to that? I assume I am.
RADDATZ: Yes, you can respond to that.
TRUMP: It’s just words, folks. It’s just words. Those words, I’ve been hearing them for many years. I heard them when they were running for the Senate in New York, where Hillary was going to bring back jobs to upstate New York and she failed.
I’ve heard them where Hillary is constantly talking about the inner cities of our country, which are a disaster education-wise, jobwise, safety-wise, in every way possible. I’m going to help the African-Americans. I’m going to help the Latinos, Hispanics. I am going to help the inner cities.
She’s done a terrible job for the African-Americans. She wants their vote, and she does nothing, and then she comes back four years later. We saw that firsthand when she was United States senator. She campaigned where the primary part of her campaign...
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump — I want to get to audience questions and online questions.
TRUMP: So, she’s allowed to do that, but I’m not allowed to respond?
Fact Checks of the Second Presidential Debate
Reporters for The New York Times fact-checked the statements made by Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump during Sunday’s presidential debate.
RADDATZ: You’re going to have — you’re going to get to respond right now.
TRUMP: Sounds fair.
RADDATZ: This tape is generating intense interest. In just 48 hours, it’s become the single most talked about story of the entire 2016 election on Facebook, with millions and millions of people discussing it on the social network. As we said a moment ago, we do want to bring in questions from voters around country via social media, and our first stays on this topic. Jeff from Ohio asks on Facebook, “Trump says the campaign has changed him. When did that happen?” So, Mr. Trump, let me add to that. When you walked off that bus at age 59, were you a different man or did that behavior continue until just recently? And you have two minutes for this.
TRUMP: It was locker room talk, as I told you. That was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I am a person who has great respect for people, for my family, for the people of this country. And certainly, I’m not proud of it. But that was something that happened.
If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words, and his was action. His was what he’s done to women. There’s never been anybody in the history politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women. So you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women.
Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously. Four of them here tonight. One of the women, who is a wonderful woman, at 12 years old, was raped at 12. Her client she represented got him off, and she’s seen laughing on two separate occasions, laughing at the girl who was raped. Kathy Shelton, that young woman is here with us tonight.
So don’t tell me about words. I am absolutely — I apologize for those words. But it is things that people say. But what President Clinton did, he was impeached, he lost his license to practice law. He had to pay an $850,000 fine to one of the women. Paula Jones, who’s also here tonight.
And I will tell you that when Hillary brings up a point like that and she talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it’s disgraceful, and I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth.
(APPLAUSE)
RADDATZ: Can we please hold the applause? Secretary Clinton, you have two minutes.
CLINTON: Well, first, let me start by saying that so much of what he’s just said is not right, but he gets to run his campaign any way he chooses. He gets to decide what he wants to talk about. Instead of answering people’s questions, talking about our agenda, laying out the plans that we have that we think can make a better life and a better country, that’s his choice.
When I hear something like that, I am reminded of what my friend, Michelle Obama, advised us all: When they go low, you go high.
(APPLAUSE) And, look, if this were just about one video, maybe what he’s saying tonight would be understandable, but everyone can draw their own conclusions at this point about whether or not the man in the video or the man on the stage respects women. But he never apologizes for anything to anyone.
CLINTON: He never apologized to Mr. and Mrs. Khan, the Gold Star family whose son, Captain Khan, died in the line of duty in Iraq. And Donald insulted and attacked them for weeks over their religion.
He never apologized to the distinguished federal judge who was born in Indiana, but Donald said he couldn’t be trusted to be a judge because his parents were, quote, “Mexican.”
He never apologized to the reporter that he mimicked and mocked on national television and our children were watching. And he never apologized for the racist lie that President Obama was not born in the United States of America. He owes the president an apology, he owes our country an apology, and he needs to take responsibility for his actions and his words.
TRUMP: Well, you owe the president an apology, because as you know very well, your campaign, Sidney Blumenthal — he’s another real winner that you have — and he’s the one that got this started, along with your campaign manager, and they were on television just two weeks ago, she was, saying exactly that. So you really owe him an apology. You’re the one that sent the pictures around your campaign, sent the pictures around with President Obama in a certain garb. That was long before I was ever involved, so you actually owe an apology.
Number two, Michelle Obama. I’ve gotten to see the commercials that they did on you. And I’ve gotten to see some of the most vicious commercials I’ve ever seen of Michelle Obama talking about you, Hillary.
So, you talk about friend? Go back and take a look at those commercials, a race where you lost fair and square, unlike the Bernie Sanders race, where you won, but not fair and square, in my opinion. And all you have to do is take a look at WikiLeaks and just see what they say about Bernie Sanders and see what Deborah Wasserman Schultz had in mind, because Bernie Sanders, between super-delegates and Deborah Wasserman Schultz, he never had a chance. And I was so surprised to see him sign on with the devil.
But when you talk about apology, I think the one that you should really be apologizing for and the thing that you should be apologizing for are the 33,000 e-mails that you deleted, and that you acid washed, and then the two boxes of e-mails and other things last week that were taken from an office and are now missing.
And I’ll tell you what. I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it, and we’re going to have a special prosecutor.
When I speak, I go out and speak, the people of this country are furious. In my opinion, the people that have been long-term workers at the FBI are furious. There has never been anything like this, where e-mails — and you get a subpoena, you get a subpoena, and after getting the subpoena, you delete 33,000 e-mails, and then you acid wash them or bleach them, as you would say, very expensive process.
So we’re going to get a special prosecutor, and we’re going to look into it, because you know what? People have been — their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done. And it’s a disgrace. And honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, I want to follow up on that.
(CROSSTALK)
RADDATZ: I’m going to let you talk about e-mails.
CLINTON: ... because everything he just said is absolutely false, but I’m not surprised.
TRUMP: Oh, really?
CLINTON: In the first debate...
(LAUGHTER)
RADDATZ: And really, the audience needs to calm down here.
CLINTON: ... I told people that it would be impossible to be fact-checking Donald all the time. I’d never get to talk about anything I want to do and how we’re going to really make lives better for people.
So, once again, go to HillaryClinton.com. We have literally Trump — you can fact check him in real time. Last time at the first debate, we had millions of people fact checking, so I expect we’ll have millions more fact checking, because, you know, it is — it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.
TRUMP: Because you’d be in jail.
(APPLAUSE)
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton...
COOPER: We want to remind the audience to please not talk out loud. Please do not applaud. You’re just wasting time.
RADDATZ: And, Secretary Clinton, I do want to follow up on e- mails. You’ve said your handing of your e-mails was a mistake. You disagreed with FBI Director James Comey, calling your handling of classified information, quote, “extremely careless.” The FBI said that there were 110 classified e-mails that were exchanged, eight of which were top secret, and that it was possible hostile actors did gain access to those e-mails. You don’t call that extremely careless? CLINTON: Well, Martha, first, let me say — and I’ve said before, but I’ll repeat it, because I want everyone to hear it — that was a mistake, and I take responsibility for using a personal e-mail account. Obviously, if I were to do it over again, I would not. I’m not making any excuses. It was a mistake. And I am very sorry about that.
But I think it’s also important to point out where there are some misleading accusations from critics and others. After a year-long investigation, there is no evidence that anyone hacked the server I was using and there is no evidence that anyone can point to at all — anyone who says otherwise has no basis — that any classified material ended up in the wrong hands.
I take classified materials very seriously and always have. When I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I was privy to a lot of classified material. Obviously, as secretary of state, I had some of the most important secrets that we possess, such as going after bin Laden. So I am very committed to taking classified information seriously. And as I said, there is no evidence that any classified information ended up in the wrong hands.
RADDATZ: OK, we’re going to move on.
TRUMP: And yet she didn’t know the word — the letter C on a document. Right? She didn’t even know what that word — what that letter meant.
You know, it’s amazing. I’m watching Hillary go over facts. And she’s going after fact after fact, and she’s lying again, because she said she — you know, what she did with the e-mail was fine. You think it was fine to delete 33,000 e-mails? I don’t think so.
She said the 33,000 e-mails had to do with her daughter’s wedding, number one, and a yoga class. Well, maybe we’ll give three or three or four or five or something. 33,000 e-mails deleted, and now she’s saying there wasn’t anything wrong.
And more importantly, that was after getting a subpoena. That wasn’t before. That was after. She got it from the United States Congress. And I’ll be honest, I am so disappointed in congressmen, including Republicans, for allowing this to happen.
Our Justice Department, where our husband goes on to the back of a airplane for 39 minutes, talks to the attorney general days before a ruling is going to be made on her case. But for you to say that there was nothing wrong with you deleting 39,000 e-mails, again, you should be ashamed of yourself. What you did — and this is after getting a subpoena from the United States Congress.
COOPER: We have to move on.
TRUMP: You did that. Wait a minute. One second.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, you can respond, and then we got to move on.
RADDATZ: We want to give the audience a chance.
TRUMP: If you did that in the private sector, you’d be put in jail, let alone after getting a subpoena from the United States Congress.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, you can respond. Then we have to move on to an audience question.
CLINTON: Look, it’s just not true. And so please, go to...
TRUMP: Oh, you didn’t delete them?
COOPER: Allow her to respond, please.
CLINTON: It was personal e-mails, not official.
TRUMP: Oh, 33,000? Yeah.
CLINTON: Not — well, we turned over 35,000, so...
TRUMP: Oh, yeah. What about the other 15,000?
COOPER: Please allow her to respond. She didn’t talk while you talked.
CLINTON: Yes, that’s true, I didn’t.
Trump and Clinton Debate: Analysis
Here’s how we analyzed in real time the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump.
TRUMP: Because you have nothing to say.
CLINTON: I didn’t in the first debate, and I’m going to try not to in this debate, because I’d like to get to the questions that the people have brought here tonight to talk to us about.
TRUMP: Get off this question.
CLINTON: OK, Donald. I know you’re into big diversion tonight, anything to avoid talking about your campaign and the way it’s exploding and the way Republicans are leaving you. But let’s at least focus...
TRUMP: Let’s see what happens...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Allow her to respond.
CLINTON: ... on some of the issues that people care about tonight. Let’s get to their questions.
COOPER: We have a question here from Ken Karpowicz. He has a question about health care. Ken?
TRUMP: I’d like to know, Anderson, why aren’t you bringing up the e-mails? I’d like to know. Why aren’t you bringing...
COOPER: We brought up the e-mails.
TRUMP: No, it hasn’t. It hasn’t. And it hasn’t been finished at all.
COOPER: Ken Karpowicz has a question.
TRUMP: It’s nice to — one on three.
QUESTION: Thank you. Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, it is not affordable. Premiums have gone up. Deductibles have gone up. Copays have gone up. Prescriptions have gone up. And the coverage has gone down. What will you do to bring the cost down and make coverage better?
COOPER: That first one goes to Secretary Clinton, because you started out the last one to the audience.
CLINTON: If he wants to start, he can start. No, go ahead, Donald.
TRUMP: No, I’m a gentlemen, Hillary. Go ahead.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Secretary Clinton?
CLINTON: Well, I think Donald was about to say he’s going to solve it by repealing it and getting rid of the Affordable Care Act. And I’m going to fix it, because I agree with you. Premiums have gotten too high. Copays, deductibles, prescription drug costs, and I’ve laid out a series of actions that we can take to try to get those costs down.
But here’s what I don’t want people to forget when we’re talking about reining in the costs, which has to be the highest priority of the next president, when the Affordable Care Act passed, it wasn’t just that 20 million got insurance who didn’t have it before. But that in and of itself was a good thing. I meet these people all the time, and they tell me what a difference having that insurance meant to them and their families.
But everybody else, the 170 million of us who get health insurance through our employees got big benefits. Number one, insurance companies can’t deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Number two, no lifetime limits, which is a big deal if you have serious health problems.
Number three, women can’t be charged more than men for our health insurance, which is the way it used to be before the Affordable Care Act. Number four, if you’re under 26, and your parents have a policy, you can be on that policy until the age of 26, something that didn’t happen before.
So I want very much to save what works and is good about the Affordable Care Act. But we’ve got to get costs down. We’ve got to provide additional help to small businesses so that they can afford to provide health insurance. But if we repeal it, as Donald has proposed, and start over again, all of those benefits I just mentioned are lost to everybody, not just people who get their health insurance on the exchange. And then we would have to start all over again.
Right now, we are at 90 percent health insurance coverage. That’s the highest we’ve ever been in our country. COOPER: Secretary Clinton, your time is up.
CLINTON: So I want us to get to 100 percent, but get costs down and keep quality up.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, you have two minutes.
TRUMP: It is such a great question and it’s maybe the question I get almost more than anything else, outside of defense. Obamacare is a disaster. You know it. We all know it. It’s going up at numbers that nobody’s ever seen worldwide. Nobody’s ever seen numbers like this for health care.
It’s only getting worse. In ’17, it implodes by itself. Their method of fixing it is to go back and ask Congress for more money, more and more money. We have right now almost $20 trillion in debt.
Obamacare will never work. It’s very bad, very bad health insurance. Far too expensive. And not only expensive for the person that has it, unbelievably expensive for our country. It’s going to be one of the biggest line items very shortly.
We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely much less expensive and something that works, where your plan can actually be tailored. We have to get rid of the lines around the state, artificial lines, where we stop insurance companies from coming in and competing, because they want — and President Obama and whoever was working on it — they want to leave those lines, because that gives the insurance companies essentially monopolies. We want competition.
You will have the finest health care plan there is. She wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster, somewhat similar to Canada. And if you haven’t noticed the Canadians, when they need a big operation, when something happens, they come into the United States in many cases because their system is so slow. It’s catastrophic in certain ways.
But she wants to go to single payer, which means the government basically rules everything. Hillary Clinton has been after this for years. Obamacare was the first step. Obamacare is a total disaster. And not only are your rates going up by numbers that nobody’s ever believed, but your deductibles are going up, so that unless you get hit by a truck, you’re never going to be able to use it.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, your time...
TRUMP: It is a disastrous plan, and it has to be repealed and replaced.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, let me follow up with you. Your husband called Obamacare, quote, “the craziest thing in the world,” saying that small-business owners are getting killed as premiums double, coverage is cut in half. Was he mistaken or was the mistake simply telling the truth?
CLINTON: No, I mean, he clarified what he meant. And it’s very clear. Look, we are in a situation in our country where if we were to start all over again, we might come up with a different system. But we have an employer-based system. That’s where the vast majority of people get their health care.
And the Affordable Care Act was meant to try to fill the gap between people who were too poor and couldn’t put together any resources to afford health care, namely people on Medicaid. Obviously, Medicare, which is a single-payer system, which takes care of our elderly and does a great job doing it, by the way, and then all of the people who were employed, but people who were working but didn’t have the money to afford insurance and didn’t have anybody, an employer or anybody else, to help them.
That was the slot that the Obamacare approach was to take. And like I say, 20 million people now have health insurance. So if we just rip it up and throw it away, what Donald’s not telling you is we just turn it back to the insurance companies the way it used to be, and that means the insurance companies...
COOPER: Secretary Clinton...
CLINTON: ... get to do pretty much whatever they want, including saying, look, I’m sorry, you’ve got diabetes, you had cancer, your child has asthma...
COOPER: Your time is up.
CLINTON: ... you may not be able to have insurance because you can’t afford it. So let’s fix what’s broken about it, but let’s not throw it away and give it all back to the insurance companies and the drug companies. That’s not going to work.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, let me follow up on this. TRUMP: Well, I just want — just one thing. First of all, Hillary, everything’s broken about it. Everything. Number two, Bernie Sanders said that Hillary Clinton has very bad judgment. This is a perfect example of it, trying to save Obamacare, which is a disaster.
COOPER: You’ve said you want to end Obamacare...
TRUMP: By the way...
COOPER: You’ve said you want to end Obamacare. You’ve also said you want to make coverage accessible for people with pre-existing conditions. How do you force insurance companies to do that if you’re no longer mandating that every American get insurance?
TRUMP: We’re going to be able to. You’re going to have plans...
COOPER: What does that mean?
TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you what it means. You’re going to have plans that are so good, because we’re going to have so much competition in the insurance industry. Once we break out — once we break out the lines and allow the competition to come...
COOPER: Are you going — are you going to have a mandate that Americans have to have health insurance?
TRUMP: President Obama — Anderson, excuse me. President Obama, by keeping those lines, the boundary lines around each state, it was almost gone until just very toward the end of the passage of Obamacare, which, by the way, was a fraud. You know that, because Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare, was said — he said it was a great lie, it was a big lie. President Obama said you keep your doctor, you keep your plan. The whole thing was a fraud, and it doesn’t work.
But when we get rid of those lines, you will have competition, and we will be able to keep pre-existing, we’ll also be able to help people that can’t get — don’t have money because we are going to have people protected.
And Republicans feel this way, believe it or not, and strongly this way. We’re going to block grant into the states. We’re going to block grant into Medicaid into the states...
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: ... so that we will be able to take care of people without the necessary funds to take care of themselves.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
RADDATZ: We now go to Gorbah Hamed with a question for both candidates.
QUESTION: Hi. There are 3.3 million Muslims in the United States, and I’m one of them. You’ve mentioned working with Muslim nations, but with Islamophobia on the rise, how will you help people like me deal with the consequences of being labeled as a threat to the country after the election is over?
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, you’re first.
TRUMP: Well, you’re right about Islamophobia, and that’s a shame. But one thing we have to do is we have to make sure that — because there is a problem. I mean, whether we like it or not, and we could be very politically correct, but whether we like it or not, there is a problem. And we have to be sure that Muslims come in and report when they see something going on. When they see hatred going on, they have to report it.
By QUYNHANH DO and MATT FLEGENHEIMER 3:42
Trump and Clinton in Second Presidential Debate
Video
Trump and Clinton in Second Presidential Debate
Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off for the second time in a debate that unfolded with almost unremitting hostility at Washington University in St. Louis.
By QUYNHANH DO and MATT FLEGENHEIMER on Publish Date October 9, 2016. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »
- Watch in Times Video »
- Watch in Times Video »
- Watch in Times Video »RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, we are moving to an audience question. We’re almost out of time. We have another... TRUMP: We have the slowest growth since 1929.
RADDATZ: We’re moving to an audience question.
TRUMP: It is — our country has the slowest growth and jobs are a disaster.
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, Secretary Clinton, we want to get to the audience. Thank you very much both of you.
(LAUGHTER)
We have another audience question. Beth Miller has a question for both candidates.
QUESTION: Good evening. Perhaps the most important aspect of this election is the Supreme Court justice. What would you prioritize as the most important aspect of selecting a Supreme Court justice?
RADDATZ: We begin with your two minutes, Secretary Clinton.
CLINTON: Thank you. Well, you’re right. This is one of the most important issues in this election. I want to appoint Supreme Court justices who understand the way the world really works, who have real-life experience, who have not just been in a big law firm and maybe clerked for a judge and then gotten on the bench, but, you know, maybe they tried some more cases, they actually understand what people are up against.
Because I think the current court has gone in the wrong direction. And so I would want to see the Supreme Court reverse Citizens United and get dark, unaccountable money out of our politics. Donald doesn’t agree with that.
I would like the Supreme Court to understand that voting rights are still a big problem in many parts of our country, that we don’t always do everything we can to make it possible for people of color and older people and young people to be able to exercise their franchise. I want a Supreme Court that will stick with Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose, and I want a Supreme Court that will stick with marriage equality.
Now, Donald has put forth the names of some people that he would consider. And among the ones that he has suggested are people who would reverse Roe v. Wade and reverse marriage equality. I think that would be a terrible mistake and would take us backwards.
I want a Supreme Court that doesn’t always side with corporate interests. I want a Supreme Court that understands because you’re wealthy and you can give more money to something doesn’t mean you have any more rights or should have any more rights than anybody else.
So I have very clear views about what I want to see to kind of change the balance on the Supreme Court. And I regret deeply that the Senate has not done its job and they have not permitted a vote on the person that President Obama, a highly qualified person, they’ve not given him a vote to be able to be have the full complement of nine Supreme Court justices. I think that was a dereliction of duty.
I hope that they will see their way to doing it, but if I am so fortunate enough as to be president, I will immediately move to make sure that we fill that, we have nine justices that get to work on behalf of our people.
RADDATZ: Thank you, Secretary Clinton. Thank you. You’re out of time. Mr. Trump?
TRUMP: Justice Scalia, great judge, died recently. And we have a vacancy. I am looking to appoint judges very much in the mold of Justice Scalia. I’m looking for judges — and I’ve actually picked 20 of them so that people would see, highly respected, highly thought of, and actually very beautifully reviewed by just about everybody.
But people that will respect the Constitution of the United States. And I think that this is so important. Also, the Second Amendment, which is totally under siege by people like Hillary Clinton. They’ll respect the Second Amendment and what it stands for, what it represents. So important to me.
Now, Hillary mentioned something about contributions just so you understand. So I will have in my race more than $100 million put in — of my money, meaning I’m not taking all of this big money from all of these different corporations like she’s doing. What I ask is this.
So I’m putting in more than — by the time it’s finished, I’ll have more than $100 million invested. Pretty much self-funding money. We’re raising money for the Republican Party, and we’re doing tremendously on the small donations, $61 average or so.
I ask Hillary, why doesn’t — she made $250 million by being in office. She used the power of her office to make a lot of money. Why isn’t she funding, not for $100 million, but why don’t you put $10 million or $20 million or $25 million or $30 million into your own campaign?
It’s $30 million less for special interests that will tell you exactly what to do and it would really, I think, be a nice sign to the American public. Why aren’t you putting some money in? You have a lot of it. You’ve made a lot of it because of the fact that you’ve been in office. Made a lot of it while you were secretary of state, actually. So why aren’t you putting money into your own campaign? I’m just curious.
CLINTON: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
RADDATZ: Thank you very much. We’re going to get on to one more question.
CLINTON: The question was about the Supreme Court. And I just want to quickly say, I respect the Second Amendment. But I believe there should be comprehensive background checks, and we should close the gun show loophole, and close the online loophole. COOPER: Thank you.
RADDATZ: We have — we have one more question, Mrs. Clinton.
CLINTON: We have to save as many lives as we possibly can.
COOPER: We have one more question from Ken Bone about energy policy. Ken?
QUESTION: What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs, while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly and minimizing job loss for fossil power plant workers?
COOPER: Mr. Trump, two minutes?
TRUMP: Absolutely. I think it’s such a great question, because energy is under siege by the Obama administration. Under absolutely siege. The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, is killing these energy companies. And foreign companies are now coming in buying our — buying so many of our different plants and then re-jiggering the plant so that they can take care of their oil.
We are killing — absolutely killing our energy business in this country. Now, I’m all for alternative forms of energy, including wind, including solar, et cetera. But we need much more than wind and solar.
And you look at our miners. Hillary Clinton wants to put all the miners out of business. There is a thing called clean coal. Coal will last for 1,000 years in this country. Now we have natural gas and so many other things because of technology. We have unbelievable — we have found over the last seven years, we have found tremendous wealth right under our feet. So good. Especially when you have $20 trillion in debt.
I will bring our energy companies back. They’ll be able to compete. They’ll make money. They’ll pay off our national debt. They’ll pay off our tremendous budget deficits, which are tremendous. But we are putting our energy companies out of business. We have to bring back our workers.
You take a look at what’s happening to steel and the cost of steel and China dumping vast amounts of steel all over the United States, which essentially is killing our steelworkers and our steel companies. We have to guard our energy companies. We have to make it possible.
The EPA is so restrictive that they are putting our energy companies out of business. And all you have to do is go to a great place like West Virginia or places like Ohio, which is phenomenal, or places like Pennsylvania and you see what they’re doing to the people, miners and others in the energy business. It’s a disgrace.
COOPER: Your time is up. Thank you.
TRUMP: It’s an absolute disgrace. COOPER: Secretary Clinton, two minutes.
CLINTON: And actually — well, that was very interesting. First of all, China is illegally dumping steel in the United States and Donald Trump is buying it to build his buildings, putting steelworkers and American steel plants out of business. That’s something that I fought against as a senator and that I would have a trade prosecutor to make sure that we don’t get taken advantage of by China on steel or anything else.
You know, because it sounds like you’re in the business or you’re aware of people in the business — you know that we are now for the first time ever energy-independent. We are not dependent upon the Middle East. But the Middle East still controls a lot of the prices. So the price of oil has been way down. And that has had a damaging effect on a lot of the oil companies, right? We are, however, producing a lot of natural gas, which serves as a bridge to more renewable fuels. And I think that’s an important transition.
We’ve got to remain energy-independent. It gives us much more power and freedom than to be worried about what goes on in the Middle East. We have enough worries over there without having to worry about that.
So I have a comprehensive energy policy, but it really does include fighting climate change, because I think that is a serious problem. And I support moving toward more clean, renewable energy as quickly as we can, because I think we can be the 21st century clean energy superpower and create millions of new jobs and businesses.
But I also want to be sure that we don’t leave people behind. That’s why I’m the only candidate from the very beginning of this campaign who had a plan to help us revitalize coal country, because those coal miners and their fathers and their grandfathers, they dug that coal out. A lot of them lost their lives. They were injured, but they turned the lights on and they powered their factories. I don’t want to walk away from them. So we’ve got to do something for them.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton...
CLINTON: But the price of coal is down worldwide. So we have to look at this comprehensively.
COOPER: Your time is up.
CLINTON: And that’s exactly what I have proposed. I hope you will go to HillaryClinton.com and look at my entire policy.
COOPER: Time is up. We have time for one more...
RADDATZ: We have...
COOPER: One more audience question.
RADDATZ: We’ve sneaked in one more question, and it comes from Karl Becker.
QUESTION: Good evening. My question to both of you is, regardless of the current rhetoric, would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another?
(APPLAUSE)
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, would you like to go first?
CLINTON: Well, I certainly will, because I think that’s a very fair and important question. Look, I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and devoted, and I think that says a lot about Donald. I don’t agree with nearly anything else he says or does, but I do respect that. And I think that is something that as a mother and a grandmother is very important to me.
So I believe that this election has become in part so — so conflict-oriented, so intense because there’s a lot at stake. This is not an ordinary time, and this is not an ordinary election. We are going to be choosing a president who will set policy for not just four or eight years, but because of some of the important decisions we have to make here at home and around the world, from the Supreme Court to energy and so much else, and so there is a lot at stake. It’s one of the most consequential elections that we’ve had.
And that’s why I’ve tried to put forth specific policies and plans, trying to get it off of the personal and put it on to what it is I want to do as president. And that’s why I hope people will check on that for themselves so that they can see that, yes, I’ve spent 30 years, actually maybe a little more, working to help kids and families. And I want to take all that experience to the White House and do that every single day.
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump?
TRUMP: Well, I consider her statement about my children to be a very nice compliment. I don’t know if it was meant to be a compliment, but it is a great — I’m very proud of my children. And they’ve done a wonderful job, and they’ve been wonderful, wonderful kids. So I consider that a compliment.
I will say this about Hillary. She doesn’t quit. She doesn’t give up. I respect that. I tell it like it is. She’s a fighter. I disagree with much of what she’s fighting for. I do disagree with her judgment in many cases. But she does fight hard, and she doesn’t quit, and she doesn’t give up. And I consider that to be a very good trait.
RADDATZ: Thanks to both of you.
COOPER: We want to thank both the candidates. We want to thank the university here. This concludes the town hall meeting. Our thanks to the candidates, the commission, Washington University, and to everybody who watched.
RADDATZ: Please tune in on October 19th for the final presidential debate that will take place at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Good night, everyone.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.
Continue reading the main story
- Watch in Times Video »RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, we are moving to an audience question. We’re almost out of time. We have another... TRUMP: We have the slowest growth since 1929.
- Watch in Times Video »
Even as a Hillary supporter... I can say that she dodged some questions and that Abe Lincoln response was horse shit, but she did give an answer that addressed the question asked to her.
But she got shock a little after he called her a liar.
But she got shock a little after he called her a liar.
But for the Republicans to support a candidate that says "She has HATE in her heart"... speaks volumes.
The Trumptanic is sinking each hour of the day. Trust and Believe the Clinton Machine will be dripping out news, video and audio clips on this Racist Circus clown everyday until November.
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You are right about the visuals a lot of Polls show women running away from Donald Trump big time from last night debate
I said this in earlier post but the media tried to save him somewhat last night until the poll numbers drop about the debate and it was clear to everyone who really won
If Trump doesn't come out and choke out Hillary, they'll say he "stopped the bleeding"
IMO, Hillary is playing it just right. No need to say a word when Trump is self-destructing just fine on his own. And LOL @ anyone NOT anticipating a Halloween surprise "leak" of Howard Stern Show and Apprentice audios/videos. We all know they exist and are likely MUCH more explicit. By then it will be too late for the GOP to find a replacement to rally around. Game, set, match Democrats.
He didn't stop no bleeding he actually did worse with women then the first debate the only people is behind him right now is his base that's it
We all know that...but that's not what the media is going to say. They don't want Trump to flame out just yet... they want our full attention for the next month.
That's the bad part fam
I'm voting for her but trump said shit that was just 100% true.
Emails
Bill meeting at the airport shady deals
Like that shit happened then she lied and just says well its not true.
It actually is
Then talked about her donors and why she won't tax etc
And it's true lol
Trump has no plan so his plan is bullshit however Clinton knows where her bread is buttered she is not for the middle or lower class if it means pissing off her donors lining them pockets.
And I'm sorry but her smile last night was chilling
Waaay too fuckin big
Every time she did it black hole sun started playing in my head
Shame...Shame...Shame...
She gave an explanation for the emails. Nothing was leaked from it and the FBI didnt charge her...
Bill has always done and said shady shit.... but Bill isn't running. I'm still trying to get how they keep bringing Bill into this?
Under her current tax plan, her donors would be the main ones getting taxed. I wish she hammered that in last night.
I also don't get why she doesn't hammer him on the fact that initially opposed the 2007 Iraq War troop surge.
But I will agree that Hillary has also done shady shit.
It's just sad that we get to this... There is no way that I would vote for her, other then the fact that Donald Trump is fucking so unqualified for this job that it is terrifying.
Can someone PLEASE explain something to me. How does Cheeto Jesus get to talk about Bill's infidelities, and NO ONE says to him: "Bruh, really? YOU of all people. The man that married his last 3 mistresses?" ? How is this possible? This is like a wolf criticizing a fox's carnivorous ways, and the public is asking the fox to explain itself.
A couple months......he is a writer for them now.
Dude fucks up every job he gets but he keeps getting jobs.......He should be good with GQ or even Rolling Stone because he does have skills.
The email explanation that she deleted personal emails is bullshit unless you take her at her word but who scrubs personal emails from a personal server under subpoena ? You get rid of things harmful.
I also love when they talk about Russia hacking the government and agencies like the DNC and in the same breath say the private server posed no threat..
Bill is an issue because he will be back in the white house with access to shit .....Don't think Bill will just be planting vegetables and trying to get school kids to eat right. Hillary is not Obama's 3rd term, she is Bill's.
I won't believe shit she says about taxes until she does them. Obama ran on repealing Bush's tax breaks for the rich and keep 85% of them.
Obama ran on repealing the patriot act and restoring privacy and we know how that worked out.
That's the thing......all you can do is hope they will act as they say during the nomination and general once they get there
Yeah the GOP may have lost a generation of new Latino voters
House Speaker Won’t Defend Donald Trump, Upsetting G.O.P. Hard-Liners
By ALEXANDER BURNS and JONATHAN MARTINOCT. 10, 2016
Photo
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Sunday. CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan dealt a hammer blow to Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy Monday, telling Republican lawmakers that he would no longer defend Mr. Trump and would focus instead on defending the party’s majority in Congress.
But in an illustration of Mr. Trump’s powerful grip on much of the party, Mr. Ryan faced angry blowback from conservative lawmakers supportive of Mr. Trump.
After Mr. Ryan announced his decision in a conference call Monday morning, a stream of hard-liners came on the line to urge their colleagues not to give up on Mr. Trump, and complained that Mr. Ryan was effectively conceding the presidency.
Mr. Ryan initially urged his members to focus on their own re-election campaigns and to make individual decisions about how to handle Mr. Trump, according to two people who were on the call, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Continue reading the main story
But after an uproar from his own caucus, Mr. Ryan came back on the line, about 45 minutes into the call, to reassure them.
GRAPHIC
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell Reject Donald Trump’s Words, Over and Over, but Not His Candidacy
How the two top Republicans in Congress have responded to Mr. Trump’s comments.
OPEN GRAPHIC
Mr. Ryan said he would dedicate himself full time to keeping control of the House and said flatly that he “won’t defend” Mr. Trump, people on the call said. And while he did not say he was withdrawing his endorsement of Mr. Trump, some of the House members took it that way and angrily attacked him for effectively giving up on the party’s candidate.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a veteran California conservative, was particularly heated, according to House Republicans on the call. Representative Trent Franks of Arizona, using graphic language to describe abortion, made an ardent case for staying with Mr. Trump because his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, would support a policy of destroying fetuses “limb from limb.”
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan, confirmed that his sole priority for the remainder of the election would be defending congressional Republicans.
“The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities,” Ms. Strong said.
Ms. Strong said there was “no update” regarding Mr. Ryan’s endorsement of Mr. Trump.
Few anti-Trump voices spoke up on the call. Representative Martha Roby of Alabama, a defector from Mr. Trump on Saturday, said she would contribute significant funds to help Republicans hold the House majority. But she said she would speak with colleagues in private about her decision to withdraw her endorsement in the presidential race.
Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, a vocal critic of Mr. Trump, asked his colleagues if they were truly confident that there would be no more damaging disclosures about Mr. Trump. In any case, Mr. Dent argued that the presidential race was now effectively over for Mr. Trump.
Graphic: More Than 160 Republican Leaders Don’t Support Donald Trump. Here’s When They Reached Their Breaking Point.
The announcement from Mr. Ryan comes as a bitter disappointment to Mr. Trump’s campaign, which had hoped his debate performance would halt an exodus of fellow Republicans.
Mr. Trump’s candidacy was already in a dire condition before Mr. Ryan’s gesture of rejection: A poll published Monday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found him trailing Mrs. Clinton by a wide margin and drawing less than 40 percent of the vote. The survey was taken before Sunday night’s debate.
Early on Monday, Mr. Trump’s advisers implored members of the party to hang with their nominee, and sought to project an aura of confidence after Mr. Trump’s aggressive clash with Mrs. Clinton on Sunday night.
Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said on “CBS This Morning” that she hoped Mr. Ryan “keeps his word” and maintained support for Mr. Trump.
But in a potentially ominous sign for the party, Ms. Conway also offered a note of warning for Republicans fleeing Mr. Trump: Mr. Ryan, she noted, had been booed by Trump fans over the weekend in Wisconsin after asking Mr. Trump not to attend a political event in his home state.
Ms. Conway also repeatedly indicated that she was aware of Republican lawmakers who had behaved inappropriately toward young women, and whose criticism of Mr. Trump was therefore hypocritical.
In an effort at reassurance, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate, denied in several television interviews that he was thinking of leaving the Republican ticket. Mr. Pence said he was fully committed to the race and would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Mr. Trump for the duration.
“Donald Trump stepped up and won the debate last night,” Mr. Pence said on Fox News. “He showed humility and he showed strength and he expressed genuine contrition.”
Some Republicans had hoped that Mr. Pence would abandon Mr. Trump, crippling Mr. Trump’s candidacy and allowing the party to designate someone else as its standard-bearer. Several prominent Republican officials, including Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio, said over the weekend that they planned to cast protest votes for Mr. Pence instead of Mr. Trump for president.
Mr. Ryan’s huddle with House Republicans was the first of multiple war councils in Washington on Monday, as Republicans weighed how to handle a nominee whose campaign has appeared to unravel in recent days. The Republican National Committee, which has been fiercely loyal to Mr. Trump, was to hold a conference call with its members later in the afternoon.
No new prominent Republicans have withdrawn their endorsements from Mr. Trump since the end of the debate, but there was a palpable fear throughout the party that Mr. Trump had already been damaged beyond repair.
And despite his campaign’s insistent declarations of victory, Mr. Trump appeared to inflict new harm on his candidacy on Sunday night, handing new political ammunition to Mrs. Clinton, and Democrats aiming to make Republicans pay a price for supporting his campaign. He made a series of incendiary and damaging statements in the debate, in one instance declaring that Mrs. Clinton would be in jail if he were president, and another confirming that he had avoided paying federal income tax for years.
Photo
Speaker Paul Ryan during the 1st Congressional District Republican Party of Wisconsin Fall Fest on October 8 at the Walworth County Fairgrounds in Elkhorn, Wisc. CreditMandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager, seized on Mr. Trump’s remark about jailing a political rival, and called on Mr. Trump to apologize.
“It’s chilling that Donald Trump thinks that the presidency is like some banana republic dictatorship where you can lock up your political opponents,” Mr. Mook said.
Mr. Mook also criticized Mr. Trump for what he described as a “stunt event” on Sunday evening, in which Mr. Trump brought together three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misdeeds in the past for an impromptu statement to the media in St. Louis.
It appears likely that Mr. Trump and his allies will continue to make an issue of Mr. Clinton’s past conduct for the duration of the race. After having mused for months about raising Mr. Clinton’s indiscretions, Mr. Trump made them an issue on Sunday night.
But Mr. Trump’s top surrogates continued to attack Mr. Clinton on Monday morning. Ms. Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, suggested that television news shows book Mr. Clinton’s accusers for interviews.
Even Mr. Pence, who has made a practice of avoiding personal attacks for much of his political career, jabbed at Mr. Clinton on CNN for his liaison with Monica Lewinsky, whom Mr. Pence repeatedly reminded viewers was “a 23-year-old intern in the White House.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/us/politics/donald-trump-gop-hillary-clinton.html
By ALEXANDER BURNS and JONATHAN MARTINOCT. 10, 2016
Photo
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Sunday. CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan dealt a hammer blow to Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy Monday, telling Republican lawmakers that he would no longer defend Mr. Trump and would focus instead on defending the party’s majority in Congress.
But in an illustration of Mr. Trump’s powerful grip on much of the party, Mr. Ryan faced angry blowback from conservative lawmakers supportive of Mr. Trump.
After Mr. Ryan announced his decision in a conference call Monday morning, a stream of hard-liners came on the line to urge their colleagues not to give up on Mr. Trump, and complained that Mr. Ryan was effectively conceding the presidency.
Mr. Ryan initially urged his members to focus on their own re-election campaigns and to make individual decisions about how to handle Mr. Trump, according to two people who were on the call, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Continue reading the main story
But after an uproar from his own caucus, Mr. Ryan came back on the line, about 45 minutes into the call, to reassure them.
GRAPHIC
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell Reject Donald Trump’s Words, Over and Over, but Not His Candidacy
How the two top Republicans in Congress have responded to Mr. Trump’s comments.
OPEN GRAPHIC
Mr. Ryan said he would dedicate himself full time to keeping control of the House and said flatly that he “won’t defend” Mr. Trump, people on the call said. And while he did not say he was withdrawing his endorsement of Mr. Trump, some of the House members took it that way and angrily attacked him for effectively giving up on the party’s candidate.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a veteran California conservative, was particularly heated, according to House Republicans on the call. Representative Trent Franks of Arizona, using graphic language to describe abortion, made an ardent case for staying with Mr. Trump because his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, would support a policy of destroying fetuses “limb from limb.”
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan, confirmed that his sole priority for the remainder of the election would be defending congressional Republicans.
“The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities,” Ms. Strong said.
Ms. Strong said there was “no update” regarding Mr. Ryan’s endorsement of Mr. Trump.
Few anti-Trump voices spoke up on the call. Representative Martha Roby of Alabama, a defector from Mr. Trump on Saturday, said she would contribute significant funds to help Republicans hold the House majority. But she said she would speak with colleagues in private about her decision to withdraw her endorsement in the presidential race.
Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, a vocal critic of Mr. Trump, asked his colleagues if they were truly confident that there would be no more damaging disclosures about Mr. Trump. In any case, Mr. Dent argued that the presidential race was now effectively over for Mr. Trump.
Graphic: More Than 160 Republican Leaders Don’t Support Donald Trump. Here’s When They Reached Their Breaking Point.
The announcement from Mr. Ryan comes as a bitter disappointment to Mr. Trump’s campaign, which had hoped his debate performance would halt an exodus of fellow Republicans.
Mr. Trump’s candidacy was already in a dire condition before Mr. Ryan’s gesture of rejection: A poll published Monday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found him trailing Mrs. Clinton by a wide margin and drawing less than 40 percent of the vote. The survey was taken before Sunday night’s debate.
Early on Monday, Mr. Trump’s advisers implored members of the party to hang with their nominee, and sought to project an aura of confidence after Mr. Trump’s aggressive clash with Mrs. Clinton on Sunday night.
Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said on “CBS This Morning” that she hoped Mr. Ryan “keeps his word” and maintained support for Mr. Trump.
But in a potentially ominous sign for the party, Ms. Conway also offered a note of warning for Republicans fleeing Mr. Trump: Mr. Ryan, she noted, had been booed by Trump fans over the weekend in Wisconsin after asking Mr. Trump not to attend a political event in his home state.
Ms. Conway also repeatedly indicated that she was aware of Republican lawmakers who had behaved inappropriately toward young women, and whose criticism of Mr. Trump was therefore hypocritical.
In an effort at reassurance, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate, denied in several television interviews that he was thinking of leaving the Republican ticket. Mr. Pence said he was fully committed to the race and would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Mr. Trump for the duration.
“Donald Trump stepped up and won the debate last night,” Mr. Pence said on Fox News. “He showed humility and he showed strength and he expressed genuine contrition.”
Some Republicans had hoped that Mr. Pence would abandon Mr. Trump, crippling Mr. Trump’s candidacy and allowing the party to designate someone else as its standard-bearer. Several prominent Republican officials, including Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio, said over the weekend that they planned to cast protest votes for Mr. Pence instead of Mr. Trump for president.
Mr. Ryan’s huddle with House Republicans was the first of multiple war councils in Washington on Monday, as Republicans weighed how to handle a nominee whose campaign has appeared to unravel in recent days. The Republican National Committee, which has been fiercely loyal to Mr. Trump, was to hold a conference call with its members later in the afternoon.
No new prominent Republicans have withdrawn their endorsements from Mr. Trump since the end of the debate, but there was a palpable fear throughout the party that Mr. Trump had already been damaged beyond repair.
And despite his campaign’s insistent declarations of victory, Mr. Trump appeared to inflict new harm on his candidacy on Sunday night, handing new political ammunition to Mrs. Clinton, and Democrats aiming to make Republicans pay a price for supporting his campaign. He made a series of incendiary and damaging statements in the debate, in one instance declaring that Mrs. Clinton would be in jail if he were president, and another confirming that he had avoided paying federal income tax for years.
Photo
Speaker Paul Ryan during the 1st Congressional District Republican Party of Wisconsin Fall Fest on October 8 at the Walworth County Fairgrounds in Elkhorn, Wisc. CreditMandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager, seized on Mr. Trump’s remark about jailing a political rival, and called on Mr. Trump to apologize.
“It’s chilling that Donald Trump thinks that the presidency is like some banana republic dictatorship where you can lock up your political opponents,” Mr. Mook said.
Mr. Mook also criticized Mr. Trump for what he described as a “stunt event” on Sunday evening, in which Mr. Trump brought together three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misdeeds in the past for an impromptu statement to the media in St. Louis.
It appears likely that Mr. Trump and his allies will continue to make an issue of Mr. Clinton’s past conduct for the duration of the race. After having mused for months about raising Mr. Clinton’s indiscretions, Mr. Trump made them an issue on Sunday night.
But Mr. Trump’s top surrogates continued to attack Mr. Clinton on Monday morning. Ms. Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, suggested that television news shows book Mr. Clinton’s accusers for interviews.
Even Mr. Pence, who has made a practice of avoiding personal attacks for much of his political career, jabbed at Mr. Clinton on CNN for his liaison with Monica Lewinsky, whom Mr. Pence repeatedly reminded viewers was “a 23-year-old intern in the White House.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/us/politics/donald-trump-gop-hillary-clinton.html
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