As it happened: Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton in US presidential debate
After months of tangling from afar, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump confront each other face-to-face for the first time in Monday night’s presidential debate
Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump face off for the first time on Monday in a high stakes presidential debate that could shift the course of the neck-and-neck 2016 campaign for the White House. Opinion polls show the two candidates in a very tight race.
The highly anticipated clash between the Democratic former secretary of state and Republican real estate tycoon has generated wide interest nationally and internationally six weeks before the November 8 election.
The 90-minute debate could sway undecided and independent voters who have yet to make up their minds as well as voters from both parties who have tuned out the election until now.
Watch the debate here
Here are the live updates (India time):
8:10am: The debate ends.
8:08am: I want to make America great again...(But) if she wins, I will definitely support her, says Donald.
8:08am: I belive in democracy...I will accept whatever the outcome is, says Hillary.
8:07am: Gloves are off. It is like a boxing ring now. The debate is ending on a bitter note.
8:06am: Hillary turns up the heat, reminds Donald his controversial comment on women.
8:04am: She doesn’t have the stamina (to be the President), Donald launches a scathing attack on Hillary.
7:57am: The deal with Iran is one of the worst deals in the history, says Donald. He adds that the pact could lead to nuclear problems.
7:56am: His (Doanld’s ) cavalier attitude on nuclear weapons is deeply troubling, says Hillary.
7:52am: I have a much better judgement and temperament than her (Hillary), says Donald.
7:50am: I was against the Iraq war, says Donald. He adds mainstream media has propagated that he is in favour of the war.
7:45am: Donald blames the Obama administration’s policies for the creation of the IS militant group.
7:44am: “I think we need to go after Baghdadi. We’ve got to defeat IS,” says Hillary.
7:40am: Under President Obama we lost control of things we used to control, says Donald. “We have to be very, very tough on cyber security,” he adds, “Look, what IS is doing with internet?”
7:37am: Increasingly, we are seeing cyber attacks from states -- parts of the state, Hillary says, taking a swipe at Russia. Her move is an apparent potshot at Donald, who has previously indicated that he is not against Vladimir Putin.
7:34am: Barack Obama is a man of great dignity and I could tell how much it bothered him, says Hillary. He went high despite Donald’s attempts to bring him down, she adds.
7:32am: “What took you so long to acknowledge US’ first Black President was in fact an American,” the moderator questions Donald. The Republican nominee replies: “I was the one who got him (Obama) to produce the birth certificate.”
7:31am: People can’t stop talking about the debate on Twitter. Here are some posts:
7:30am: I’ve prepared to be a President, says Hillary. “And that’s a good thing.”
7:21am: We have to have a system, can’t just talk about law and order, says Hilary. She says Donald paints dire, negative picture of black communities in the US.
7:19am: Donald says: “We Have Gangs Roaming The Streets...Many are illegal immigrants.”
7:18am: We have to protect our cities, says Donald. “African-Americans and Hispanics are living in hell...African-American community is decimated by crimes,” he adds, “It is very unfair to them...”
7:17am: Donald says Hillary doesn’t want to use two words -- law and order. “And that’s what we want,” says Donald.
7:15am: Hillary says race is “still a problem in our country”. “We have to restore trust between communities and police.” The gun epidemic has to be stopped.
7:10am: And again. Hillary and Donald are sparring over the Republican nominee’s tax returns.
7:07am: “I made a mistake by using private emails....I admit, I made a mistake,” Hillary on email controversy.
7:05am: Why doesn’t he make his tax returns public? Hillary asks. “There is something he is hiding.”
7:05am: It’s getting nasty. Why did she delete her emails? asks Donald.
7:02am: Typical politician, says Donald, hitting out at Hillary. It sounds good but doesn’t work, he adds. “We are in a big, fat ugly bubble.”
7:00am: Trickle down model doesn’t work in the US. Cutting taxes on the rich doesn’t work. I want to build the politician, says Hillary.
6:56am: Suddenly, we are talking about Islamic State. Hillary says, “at least I have a plan to fight IS”. Donald replies: “You are telling your enemy everything you want to do”.
6:54am: Amid the talks on policy and economy, Donald and Hillary are needling each other in a bid to make the opponent angry. Both have scored some points with sarcasm, it seems. But Donald is more aggressive. Expected, isn’t it?
6:51am: Donald cuts in, says “you haven’t done this in 30-25 years”.
6:51am: Trade is not the only challenge in our economy, says Hillary. I know how to create new jobs, she adds.
6:49am: Our energy policy is a disaster, says Donald. And again he says incentives to companies are needed to make companies happy and retain jobs.
6:47am: Hillary talks of the 2008 financial crisis. She says the US has recovered from the crisis and the country cannot go back to the policies that triggered the mess.
6:44am: Temperatures soaring. Donald seems aggressive. He asks what the policymakers, including Hillary, had been doing to improve America.
6:42am: Well, well, well. Hillary counters Trump. Hillary repeats: ‘I want to invest in you (Americans)”. She rejects Trump’s model to retain jobs.
6:41am: This will bring new jobs...This will stop countries (such as Mexico) from stealing our jobs, says Donald.
6:40am: We have to stop the jobs leaving...I will be reducing taxes, says Donald.
6:39am: We are losing our good jobs, says Donald. Thousands of job leaving the US...that cannot happen, he says.
6:38am: Hillary stresses debt-free college and affordable healthcare. We have to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, she says.
6:36am: I want to invest in you, says Hillary, sharing her vision on how to create more jobs in the US.
6:35am: Hillary and Donald enter the studio...And the debate begins.
6:25am: Look who’s here!!! Bill Clinton and Melania Trump enter the studio -- and they smile and shake hands.
6:20am: The hosts managed overlook one small detail. The name of the Democratic nominee, the first woman in American history to win a major party nomination for president, was misspelled on souvenir tickets handed out to students at Hofstra University.
The tickets given to 350 students who won coveted seats in a lottery to attend the debate misspelled Clinton’s first name -- “Hilary” -- TV networks NBC and CBS reported.
6.25pm: Lester Holt, 57, the respected anchor of NBC’s evening news programme, will moderate the debate. He moderated one of the Democrats’ primary debates in January.
6.20pm: Trump needs to convince voters that he has what it takes to be president, that he has at least an adequate familiarity with the issues and can make it through a high-pressure debate against a single opponent without losing his self-control.
6.15pm: The bar is higher for the Clinton, given her experience and detailed knowledge of the issues.
The Democratic candidate will have to show that she is presidential but also honest (55% of Americans do not think so), while proving that she has fully recovered from her recent bout of pneumonia.
6.10pm: Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, and Jill Stein, the Greens Party nominee, were not invited to the debate. They did not reach the threshold, set by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), of 15% support in five national opinion polls.
