by Keshan Huang

The Mirror
Editor-in-Chief

Trump claimed that “ doesn’t have the stamina” to be President of the United States.

Clinton attacked Trump over his relationship with Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

Sparks Fly in the First Presidential Debate

NEWS: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump duke it out, but likely change few minds of undecided voters

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump went head to head in the first presidential debate on September 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

The moderator, NBC News’ Lester Holt, prepared the questions, which fell under one of the three main categories for the debate: achieving prosperity, America’s direction, and securing America.

The debate started out quite smoothly with both candidates respecting each other and discussing about the actual issues; however, as the debate progressed, things got a bit out of hand with insults and punches thrown by both sides.

Among other remarks, Trump claimed that “ doesn’t have the stamina” to be President of the United States. In retaliation, Clinton noted her many accomplishments as secretary of state, which included traveling to over 100 countries.

Much of the debate was wrapped around fact-checking lies, such as, with Trump persistently saying that he does not and has never supported the Iraq War. However, as confirmed by Holt, “the record shows otherwise.”

Clinton defended her position on stop-and-frisk by saying that murder rates have continued to go down after stop-and-frisk was declared unconstitutional in New York, but that is not the case.

On cyber warfare and security, Clinton displayed her knowledge, noting that in addition to the various hacking groups, there are also states that organize cyber attacks, such as Russia. She personally attacked Trump over his relationship with Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and reprimanded Trump for taunting Putin to hack into America.

Trump boasted about his many endorsements, including an endorsement from ICE, which is Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency that oversees the Border Patrol, in order to legitimize his policies and knowledge on immigration and border security.

But ICE is a branch of the federal government and as such cannot make any type of political endorsements.

To attack Clinton’s ethics and image, Trump accused her and the Democratic party of taking advantage of Senator Bernie Sanders.

When it came to foreign policy and the solution against ISIS, Clinton proved that she had more substance than Trump. Clinton has put forward a plan to defeat ISIS and to deal with the way ISIS uses the internet to galvanize support. She cautioned the American public about how we must be aware of how ISIS groups take foreign fighters from around the world.

Trump repeatedly blamed Clinton for many problems, from the economy to the unrest in the Middle East. He claimed that if the United States had taken the oil in the first place, we would not be dealing terrorist groups like ISIS.

Emphasizing the “terrible” deals that Clinton made, such as the Iran Nuclear Agreement, Trump said he doesn’t believe that other NATO countries are paying their fair share for American military defense, but he does support NATO’s terror division to attack ISIS.

Without any major jarring slips from either candidate, this first debate probably will not sway many of the undecided voters.