Who won Clinton-Trump debate clash, and how much did it matter? Wait a few days

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton engaged in a feisty debate Monday, but who won by how much, and how much it matters, may not be known for several days.

Dr. Hal Bass, Ouachita Baptist University political science professor emeritus, said he didn’t see a defining moment such as the “You’re no Jack Kennedy” line Lloyd Bentsen laid on Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice presidential debate. However, sometimes those moments aren’t clear for several days. For example, he said, Al Gore’s audible sighs during his 2000 debate with George W. Bush didn’t immediately define that debate but did in the days afterwards.

Bass said the interpretations over the next few days can be more important than early impressions. He said he didn’t think most Americans would change their minds as a result of debate performances.

“Debates are rarely the game-changers that I think media hype kind of portrays them as being,” he said. “Having said that, I do think strictly in terms of both style and substance, it was a better night for Hillary.”

Bass said Clinton seemed more poised and in command of details. Trump did well at the beginning but then seemed off kilter. With both candidates televised throughout the debate on a split screen, “It looked to me like she did a better job of getting to him than he did of getting to her,” he said.

GOP consultant Frank Luntz tweeted that in his Philadelphia focus group, 16 people said Clinton won while six said Trump had won. The candidates clashed on policy early in the debate but soon moved to personal characteristics. The debate featured numerous exchanges between the candidates, with at times debate moderator Lester Holt barely able to get a word in.

“They were not fighting with the big padded gloves and helmets,” Bass said. “They were slugging it out in a bare knuckles fight.”

Asked about his questioning of President Obama being born in America, Trump said he had successfully goaded Obama into releasing his birth certificate and said Clinton’s campaign had first raised the question. Clinton said Trump had started his campaign based on a racist lie and began his business career in 1973 being sued for racial discrimination because he would not rent to African-Americans. Trump responded that many landlords had been sued and that he had settled the lawsuit with no admission of guilt.

Trump also questioned Clinton’s stamina to be president. Clinton responded that she had traveled the world as secretary of state and testified for 11 hours before Congress.

When Holt asked whether Trump would release his tax returns, Trump said he had completed a statement of financial interest but would not release the returns until after an IRS audit was completed. Then he said he would release his returns when Clinton releases her emails.

Clinton said she had made a mistake in using a private server for her emails while secretary of state and then attacked Trump for not releasing his tax returns, saying he might not be as rich as he says he is, or not as charitable, or hasn’t paid federal taxes. She said thousands of people have been stiffed by him when he refused to pay what he owed.

Trump responded by saying he had taken advantage of existing laws.

The early part of the debate featured disagreements on jobs and the economy, with Clinton calling for raising the minimum wage and paid family leave along with higher taxes on the wealthy. Trump, on the other hand, focused on what he said have been unfair trade deals, saying jobs are fleeing the country for Mexico and China. As a longtime politician, Clinton had failed to fix the situation and made trade worse by voting for those deals.

But soon the conversation became more personal. Clinton said Trump supported policies that would benefit the wealthy, including his own family, calling those policies “Trumped up trickle down” economics. He said Clinton supported a large tax increase and more regulations on business. She said he had started his business with $14 million borrowed from his father. He said his father had given him a small loan and he had built his business.