On Monday, September 26, the first presidential debate was held at Hofstra University. Republican Party nominee Donald Trump and Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton took the podiums to discuss their positions on a variety of issues that the United States faces, with a focus on the economy and security at home and abroad. The debate started calm, but quickly heated up, showing the animosity between the viewpoints of both candidates and their supporters. It is due to this that I have written this article, fearing that the emotionalism did not serve to inform the public, but rather to confirm the public’s view on the candidates. I have done my best to remove this and only give the candidates’ views on the issues presented.

The opening question of the debate asked the two candidates to expand on their position on job creation and growing the economy. Clinton answered first, saying that her platform focused on taxing higher earners and using this money to pay for new and existing programs. Some of the more concrete focuses were on a higher minimum wage and getting everyone to “pay their fair share,” through policies I’ve reviewed here. She’s also mentioned wanting to incentivize companies to share profit with employees, but mechanisms for that weren’t discussed. Hillary Clinton mentioned wanting the country to have paid family leave.

Donald Trump answered with his consistent message to try and grow the economy through cutting taxes and decreasing regulations, which is further broken down here, thus incentivizing companies to stay in the United States and promote job growth. This is a key issue in this campaign, and Trump has focused on keeping jobs in the US which is important to a vocal segment of his supporters. He vocalized his want to make American trade more competitive through renegotiation or abolition of NAFTA. He also criticized other countries use of practices that produced unfair incentives for trade. He cited China’s apparent currency manipulation, and Mexico’s value-added tax on imports, but left his position open on the U.S. taxing imports from foreign countries.

There was a moment where the candidates agreed on the need for prosperity for Americans but disagree on the prescription to do it. Trump insisting on a supply-side solution (lower taxes) while Clinton focuses on a demand-side solution (increased money coming to low earners).This is best summed with Trump saying he was reducing taxes to the lowest since President Reagan, and Clinton saying that trickle-down economics didn’t work.

Due to both candidates' position on helping the economy, this flowed naturally into the next question, pushing candidates to focus on taxes specifically. Trump maintained his position on the topic of lowered taxes leading to growth and that government’s current level of regulation hampers industry, and that deregulation is needed to unleash the potential of industry. He also spoke on how the status quo was bad for the American economy – that raising interest rates would have serious consequences. That the government had agreed to the TPP, saying it was a bad deal, and that current practices prevented companies from bringing money overseas back into the United States.Then he brought up the government debt had grown to 20 trillion USD doubling since President Obama had taken office, and that its focus on solar power had been disastrous.

Clinton followed him, vehemently disagreeing about low taxes and deregulation, and saying that these practices from the Bush era had caused the environment that lead to the great recession, and that trying to recover from that was what had led to the growth in the debt. Moreover, corporations' money is stuck overseas because of an unwillingness to pay repatriation tax to bring it back to the U.S.; she also criticized Trump for not releasing his tax records and that the years his taxes were available he had not paid any federal taxes. She agreed that American trade should be promoted, that she had worked on many deals, and voted against CAFTA. She also said she would create a special prosecutor to target illegal foreign trade practices. Finally, she stated that America had the potential to become a clean energy superpower, and that on the topic of her emails, that she had made a mistake. If she could go back, she would do it differently, and that she takes responsibility for her actions.

The third question focused on racial bias, the police and crime. Donald Trump spoke on the need for law and order, and that he supported programs that get guns out of the hands of criminals, such as stop-and-frisk, saying it was effective in New York reducing murders from 2200 to 800 annually. Clinton stated stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional, and that many of these problems were symptoms of the gun violence epidemic. Her policy recommendation was “common-sense” gun control. Then she cited the need for universal background checks and preventing members of the terrorist watch list from purchasing a firearm. She said further adjustments were needed to fix the criminal justice system, such as removing minimum sentences, ending private prisons, and that crime was historically on the decline. She also said she would increase police training to remove bias that all human beings have, and that her opponent’s previous comments showed his own racial bias.

The next question allowed the candidates to speak on security with a focus on cyber threats. Hillary Clinton went on to say that there were two kinds of cyber threats individuals who are usually financially motivated, and state-sponsored cyber threats that allowed foreign countries to impose their will on us. She then criticized Trump for his comments supporting such actions against the DNC. She then stated her focus to work with our allies in Europe and the Middle East to tackle the security treats present. Next she said we could defeat ISIS in Iraq within one year, and that we needed to focus on their leadership. Specifically she said we kill al-Baghdadi, and disrupt their ability to spread propaganda.

Trump said that cyber security is tough, if not impossible, and that the current administration’s efforts reflected the failure of politicians like Hillary Clinton. He then said that his endorsements showed the quality of his plans, citing ICE, generals and admirals, and the fraternal brotherhood of police.

For more information on al-Baghdadi, you can go here; for information on Russia’s cyber effort to influence US elections you can go here, and for China’s role in Cyber you can go here.

The final question the candidates were asked about terrorism, and to discuss home grown extremism, mentioning New Jersey, San Bernardino and Orlando. Trump spoke about how the pull out of Iraq created the power vacuum that created ISIS, and that he was against the Iraq War. He also said that he was against the Iran Deal and that the other NATO members were not doing their fair share and were not focused on fighting terrorism. Hillary said that the draw down was scheduled by President Bush and that we needed plans that focused on working with our allies. She said our commitment to NATO must be strong, and that its importance was in its mutual defense clause in Article 5.

For information about US citizens, and other foreign fighters joining ISIS you can go here, and for information on home grown extremism within the US, you can go here.

In the final moments of the debate, the candidates were asked if they would support the other candidate. This question was probably brought up due to Trump's previous comment on the system being rigged. Clinton said she would support democracy regardless of who won. Trump cited an instance of what he believed to be foul play but said that he would support the other candidate if she were to win.

Regardless of your stance, I hope this has informed you for the upcoming election, and come November, I hope you vote for whoever you believe to be the best candidate.

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