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29 March 2024

Trump vows to hit Clinton harder in next US presidential debate

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stands with Trump family members after the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. (Reuters)

Published
By Reuters

Republican Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to hit rival Democrat Hillary Clinton harder in the next U.S. presidential debate after she put him on the defensive by accusing him of being racist and a tax dodger during their first matchup.

Clinton blasted Trump again the day after a forceful performance in the first of three scheduled presidential debates ahead of the Nov. 8 election. The New York real estate mogul, she said, "was making charges and claims that were demonstrably untrue, offering opinions that I think a lot of people would find offensive and off-putting."

Trump, making his first run for public office, praised himself for not attacking Clinton about the marital infidelity of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

"I may hit her harder in certain ways," Trump said in a telephone interview with "Fox & Friends." Trump added that when Clinton criticized him for his treatment of women, he resisted. "I was going to hit her with her husband's women. And I decided I shouldn't do it because her daughter was in the room."

Clinton brushed off Trump's vow, saying, "He can run his campaign however he chooses."

Trump himself had a high-profile affair with Marla Maples, the woman who would be his second wife while he was still married to his first wife, Ivanka Trump. He eventually divorced Maples and married his third and current wife, Melania Trump.

The television audience for debate looks set to approach 80-million viewer record for such events set in 1980, early Nielsen viewership data cited by U.S. media suggested.

Trump sought to deflect criticism of his debate performance, saying the debate moderator, Lester Holt of NBC News, asked him "very unfair questions" and that he was given a "very bad" microphone.

Clinton, speaking to reporters on her campaign plane, said, "Anyone who complains about the microphone is not having a good night."

There are two more debates scheduled, on Oct. 9 in St. Louis and Oct. 19 in Las Vegas.