The First Clinton and Trump Debate – Over Hyped

The first debate is over.  My response to it is depressing.  It was supposed to be the greatest event – second only to last year’s Super Bowl.  It was estimated that over 100 million viewers would take part.  Thirty minutes into the event I felt that it was going nowhere.

After it was over I was certain that it was a bust.  It was apparent to me that there were three people debating.  Of course, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton came to debate but I was totally surprised to see Lester Holt debating when he was supposed to be the Moderator.

In fact, Mr. Holt seemed more of a pest to Mr. Trump while letting Hillary Clinton off the hook on many occasions.  When Trump would go on a “roll” Lester was there to interrupt.  He interrupted Trump 41 times while interrupting Clinton a mere 7 times.  In terms of “Fact Checking” it was worse.  Lester fact checked Trump 5 times while letting Hillary go absolutely clean meaning no fact checking for Ms. Clinton– 0.

One of the fact checks was a “doosy”.  During a discussion about the “Stop and Frisk” technique by New York Policemen, Lester jumped in by saying, “Mr. Trump you do know that the Stop and Frisk technique was ruled Unconstitutional”.  Trump replied that it was not.

Later in the discussion Lester came back to the topic:  “Again Mr. Trump, the Stop and Frisk technique was, in fact, ruled unconstitutional”.  The big problem with this exchange between Trump and the “Third Debater” is that Lester was “dead” wrong.  The Supreme Court ruled it was not unconstitutional.  I have never witnessed a false fact check before.  It started to appear that Trump was put on defense, not by his designated opponent but by the supposedly neutral moderator.  Fair and impartial became two big issues in this debate.

Another big absence was the popular topics of this political race. There was one mention of terrorism.  You would think that a good third of the time would have been devoted to this.  What happened to the Benghazi Scandal?  Is Obamacare still around?  No one mentioned it.  There was not one mention of Africa which would include terrorism and immigration.

Hillary mentioned race which is a big habit of hers.  She also knocked our police departments by saying they needed more training.  She obviously doesn’t understand the common regimen for police departments.  Training is the most routine experience of a policeman.  Was this her answer for the question of police brutality?

Trump created the opening for the most current (still living) scandal of all – email abuseby state department officials with Hillary Clinton being the main player.  He mentioned it and Mr. Holt, esteemed Moderator, did not bring it forward.  The questions and back and forth did not occur.  Can you believe this omission?  All Hillary said was “You know, I made a mistake with my email server.”  35,000 emails illegally destroyed by Clinton and her gang and there was no other discussion.

Oh yes, there is the topic of the Clinton Global Initiative Foundation or “How the Clintons’ foundation made over $230 billion without any personal investment”.  We need to find that out.  It is the most amazing story to ever happen and the truth is not coming out.  There would be a need for a special prison if the truth ever came out.  How do you get such distinguished persons to play “dumb” in this investigation:  US Attorney General, Director of the FBI, two high level State Department Staffers or could you say Foundation Staffers – they were both doing it at the same time, a former President and husband of the “suspect” and the list goes on and on.  Just how many obviously guilty people were given immunity before questioning?  As one congressman stated, “Immunity was handed out like candy”.
This could have been the greatest debate of all time.  However, issues like the economy, trade, banking, education, energy, climate change, race relations, border control, national security, jobs, and the national budget and on and on were not thoroughly debated.  In essence, nothing got done.  This was a squandered event.  In other words, a missed opportunity for a nation of people who have a leadership problem.  America is up against the wall and we see no Kennedys, Roosevelts, Eisenhowers, or Lincolns stepping forward.  Maybe the whole thing was just “Rigged”.

May God save us!

Mr. Alford is the co-founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.