The 2016 Presidential Debates Essay Example
The 2016 Presidential Debates Essay Example

The 2016 Presidential Debates Essay Example

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  • Pages: 6 (1431 words)
  • Published: December 24, 2021
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Introduction

The 2016 presidential debates had the most number of viewers in American history with approximately 259 million viewers. The first debate was held on the 26th of September and was reported as the most watched debate in American history. The second debate was held on ninth October and the third one on 19th October. The debates were between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump since they are the only ones who met the criteria. Clinton was able to remain cool throughout the debate showing a lot of knowledge and confidence. On the other side, Trump demonstrated the lack of enough research and having not prepared for the debate and even accused Hillary of having seen the questions in advance. The paper is going to discuss the three presidential debates and how they illuminate the two aspirants.
The 2016 Presidential Debates

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ng the debate, Clinton was mostly focused on women. She talked about legalizing abortion by protecting the healthcare centers in planning parenthood and making marriage equal. Clinton was cool throughout the debate and she supported working with Muslim communities in identifying and preventing attacks. She avoided serious errors and concentrated on hitting Trump on his weaknesses like the issue on women lacking presidential nature.

Trump only made a fool out of himself. He talked about late abortion being the same as committing murder which is not true according to the Roe V. Wade because it does not support late term abortions. The remarks by Trump suggest that he does not understand the abortion debate and issues faced by women. It showed that Trump does not research on topics before he presents them to the public. Clinton quoted his earlier

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remark that women with previous history of committing abortion should be punished. The comment put Donald in a bad position since the people of America are not in support of such punishments.
Donald was illuminated as a person who belittles women by targeting their dignity and self-worth. Trump displayed his prejudice against women and he attacked Clinton by calling her several names like a liar and a nasty woman. Trump indicated that his biggest grievance is losing the election. He has demonstrated racism and he included it in the debate by saying that there is some bad hombre that needed to be chased out of the country. He made a fool of himself by showing fear in the sexuality of the Latinos considering that he had been charged with sexual assaults in the past. She displayed a level of knowledge and confidence especially with the issue of the second amendment, Immigration and women's rights. She was focused and when Trump tried to blame her for spreading allegations she continued speaking about women's rights and stories.

However, in the last presidential debate, the moderator was able to keep Clinton off-balance especially after he asked her about Clinton Foundation. The questions made Clinton stumble sometimes like the time when she was asked about her position on the open border. Rather than answering the question, she drove the conversation in a different direction, particularly about the Putin allegations.

In the last presidential debate, Donald did not change his approach even after being far behind in the polls. However, he was able to control his emotions when Hillary called him a puppet. He did a good job by accusing Hillary of only

talking but never getting things done. Hillary talked about negotiating better trade deals but Trump accused her of having a chance to do it in the past but did not show any positive results. Trump took away the debate when he accused Hillary of being a secret member of Isis. He was able to make Clinton stick to politics during the last debate unlike the first and the second one whereby he took the bait after being forced to do so by Clinton. He was able to score some points when he gave the promise to appoint a Supreme Court judge that was conservative in order to bring back the conservatives that have been deserted by the GOP candidate. The conversation on conservative shows that Trump had done some math and he realized he was losing in some conservative states and the promise was a way of trying to gain some votes in these states.

Donald Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of the presidential elections and would decide how to react on the eighth of November after the elections. He accused the federal bureau and the media of favoring Mrs. Clinton. As a result, Hillary called the answer horrifying because that is a way of taking down the democracy. By not accepting the results of the election and accusing the federal bureau of being unfair, Trump showed that he is not a trustworthy candidate. He is capable of causing bad effects in the case he loses the elections. Hillary Clinton also accused Trump of being a puppet for the Russian president and should not be entrusted with nuclear weapons. The accusation

implies that the Russian president had bad intentions and wanted to use Trump for his cruel reasons which were not beneficial for the American citizens. The debates attracted a lot of viewers probably because the two opponents could not be predicted on how they would act during the debate.

Trump is accused of several crimes like sexual harassments and assault but he did not defeat himself against them since he only asserted that the charges had been discredited. By failing to defend the accusations, it makes the audience consider the accusations as true masking him lose the people's trust. The citizens are not likely to support a criminal especially if the charges are associated with assault and sexual harassment. Trump criticized the democratic system and the actions of Mrs. Clinton as a political leader in the State Department. He accused Hillary of having seen the debate questions in advance even though he did not have any evidence. The issue of Emmy's awards was brought into the debate whereby Trump had previously accused the results of being rigged. It only indicates that Donald Trump has a problem in accepting losing in competitions. Failure to accept results can cause conflicts and it makes Trump look bad in the eyes of the Americans. It is outrageous that he declared accepting the results after winning the elections but if he is announced as the loser the results will have been rigged.

Clinton seemed rested and prepared for the debate by the way she took control of the stage. The debate suggests that Clinton is likely to be the next president of the United States. She did not play safe and opted

to jab at Trump continuously. Trump ruined the only chances he had in the debates to put the citizens on his side. He was able to present the issue on economy properly although the moderator showed how the plan would make the national debt grow.

The two presidential candidates defended their plans saying they would not increase the national debt. However, Trump avoided talking about the entitlement spending making Clinton accuse him of evading taxes. Clinton showed trust in the Supreme Court and talked about her support for marriage equality and abortion rights. However, Trump did not show the same trust for the Supreme Court since he called it just the Supreme Court. He also accused Clinton of hoping to steer is away because it adhered with the second amendment.

Conclusion

The presidential debate received a lot of publicity and both the candidates scored points. Donald has expanded careers through business but the debate did not illuminate any positive results in politics career. He was desperate to win in the debate but his ego could not allow him to win. There were wild charges, interruptions, and defensiveness which inhibited him from keeping his cool. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton was able to keep her cool and she can be viewed as the winner of the debate. The viewers in CNN voted her as the winner with 52 percent and only 39 percent siding with Donald. The refusal of accepting the results of the elections played a great role in Trump being considered as the loser. At the end of the debate, Trump was unable to contain himself calling Hillary a nasty woman which only indicates that Clinton

had gotten into his skin. Trump was on point in matters concerning policy and he can be declared as the winner of the debate with all other factors excluded. However, if the debate is to be focused on circs, Clinton was the winner.

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