By Todd Starnes
Here are my top ten takeaways from Sunday night’s presidential WWE match at Washington University in St. Louis (viewer discretion advised):
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1. Trump was loaded for bear. We have a saying down in Dixie: Donald Trump shucked it to the cob. His campaign was teetering on the brink. Republicans have abandoned him in droves. And yet, he came out and delivered a solid performance.
2. Voters were more interested in Hillary’s emails, not Trump’s locker room talk. Frank Luntz says his focus group gave Trump the win. As for the emails, he tweeted, “Trump’s tape is bad for him, but Hillary’s emails are even worse for her.” Luntz went on to say Trump is back in the race.
After all the talk from the press that this would be all about sex tapes, looks like they were ALL wrong. #debate
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) October 10, 2016
So remember when Anderson Cooper said the town hall #debate was going to be about letting citizens asking questions? Yeah, never mind.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 10, 2016
3. This wasn’t a town hall debate. It was a town hall ambush. CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz, disgraced themselves and their networks by ganging up on Donald Trump. When the audience cheered for Trump, they were told to be quiet. But when they cheered for Hillary, the moderators were silent. “One on three” is how Trump described it.
4. Hillary got rattled. Donald Trump knocked Hillary off her talking points and she was clearly rattled by his political punches. Off stage, one of her campaign staffers tweeted a profane message to Trump, “F*** you.” Not a bad job for a candidate who was also fielding attacks from Clinton spokesman Anderson Cooper and Clinton’s designated debater, Martha Raddatz.
5. There was no pre-debate handshake. It clearly demonstrated the level of anger and hatred between the candidates. But it’s probably best they skipped the handshake. The Mainstream Media would’ve accused Trump of inappropriate behavior.
6. Clinton won’t say Radical Islam. “We are not at war with Islam and it is a mistake and it plays into the hands of terrorists to act as though we are.” Well, trying telling that to the folks who were blown up, stabbed and gunned down in places like Orlando, San Bernardino, New Jersey, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Chattanooga, Chelsea, New York and September 11th, 2001.
7. Trump needs to stay focused on the issues. This presidential election was supposed to be about jobs and securing the border and protecting us from radical Islam – not repugnant locker room banter, overweight beauty queens or litigating the past. Don’t get distracted by Hillary and her minions in the Mainstream Media.
8. Blaming Honest Abe. WikiLeaks released excerpts of Clinton’s speech to Wall Street where she said eh has “both a public and a private position” on policy issues. When asked about that, she said she was referring to President Abraham Lincoln. That led to the second best line of the night when Trump replied, “Honest Abe never lied. That’s the difference between Abe Lincoln and you.”
9. Best Line of the Night: Mrs. Clinton: “It’s just good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump isn’t in charge of the laws in this country.” Trump: “Because you’d be in jail.” Watch:
10. Bottom Line: Trump proved that he is in the race to win the race. But we still don’t know how much damage was inflicted by the “hot mic” incident. And we also don’t know what, if any, impact Republican defections will have on the campaign.
People will remember the #kenbonemoment for this: Hillary gave predictable politician answer. Trump was a human being.#debate
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 10, 2016