5 big opportunities Trump missed in first debate
Donald Trump's suggestion Tuesday morning that he may "hit" Hillary Clinton harder during the next presidential debate came amid intense criticism, much of it from fellow Republicans, over his failure to effectively prosecute a case against his rival.
Below are five glaring opportunities the GOP nominee missed at the first debate - all of which he has effectively messaged on the campaign trail.
• He didn't hit Clinton on the email controversy.
Holt's question about cybersecurity appeared like a prime opportunity for Trump to knock Clinton on her use of a private email server as secretary of state, which her critics have seized upon to accuse her of compromising national security.
Instead Trump used his time to talk about unflattering leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee - which showed bias against Clinton's primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders - and to dispute that Russian hackers leaked the emails.
HOLT: Mr. Trump, you have two minutes and the same question. Who's behind it? And how do we fight it?
• He didn't mention "basket of deplorables" gaffe.
Trump failed to mention Clinton's infamous "basket of deplorables" comment a single time Tuesday night, which has riled up his base, despite several openings.
One moment in particular stood out. Following a question by Lester Holt about Trump questioning President Barack Obama's birth certificate, Trump stumbled through a response as Clinton accused him of "a long record of engaging in racist behavior." She followed by saying she and the president have decided not to "go low" in attacking Trump.
CLINTON: He has a long record of engaging in racist behavior. And the birther lie was a very hurtful one. You know, Barack Obama is a man of great dignity. And I could tell how much it bothered him and annoyed him that this was being touted and used against him. But I like to remember what Michelle Obama said in her amazing speech at our Democratic National Convention: When they go low, we go high. And Barack Obama went high, despite Donald Trump's best efforts to bring him down.
Instead of pivoting, to question her statement about "going high," he attempted to blame Clinton for the birther conspiracy, messaging which has failed to make much impact.
TRUMP: I would love to respond. First of all, I got to watch in preparing for this some of your debates against Barack Obama. You treated him with terrible disrespect. And I watched the way you talk now about how lovely everything is and how wonderful you are. It doesn't work that way. You were after him, you were trying to - you even sent out or your campaign sent out pictures of him in a certain garb, very famous pictures. I don't think you can deny that.
• He didn't address "racial healing" theme, instead stumbled through "birther" defense.
As Trump was attempting to blame Clinton for the birther controversy - which fact checkers have disproved, and which he championed regardless - he declined to speak about "racial healing" even as Holt gave him the opportunity to pivot.
That cut against his campaign's efforts in recent weeks to combat the impression among many minority voters that Trump is bigoted. The whole exchange is worth reading:
HOLT: "I'm sorry. I'm just going to follow up, and I will let you respond to that, because there's a lot there. But we're talking about racial healing in this segment. What do you say to Americans, people of color?
Clinton followed up during her turn to accuse of Trump of "a long record of engaging in racist behavior," cited above.
• He didn't attack Clinton's leadership during the Benghazi attack:
While discussing national security, Trump accused Clinton and Obama of creating a "vacuum" in the Middle East, which Clinton fought back against veraciously as she fact checked him on stage. At one moment it appeared he was potentially gearing up to attack Clinton on the deaths of four Americans in the 2012 assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which has animated her conservative critics.
Instead the two sparred over the facts on the ground.
TRUMP: Had we taken the oil, and we should have taken the oil, ISIS would not have been able to form either, because the oil was their primary source of income. And now they have the oil all over the place, including the oil - a lot of the oil in Libya, which was another one of her disasters.
Clinton continued discussing the withdrawal in Iraq. When Trump responded, he attacked Clinton's efforts to build coalitions in the Middle East.
TRUMP: The secretary said very strongly about working with - we've been working with them for many years, and we have the greatest mess anyone's ever seen. You look at the Middle East, it's a total mess. Under your direction, to a large extent.
• He didn't mention the Clinton Foundation.
One of Trump's central charges against Clinton is that she has manipulated her positions of authority for financial gain - "Crooked Hillary," as he calls her on the campaign trail. But Trump did not mention the Clinton Foundation at all, which has been at the center of conservatives' accusations that she traded access for donations as secretary of state.
Speaking Tuesday morning, Trump knocked Holt for not asking Clinton about several high-profile attack lines from her critics, including on the foundation.
"Well, he didn't ask her about the emails at all. He didn't ask her about her scandals. He didn't ask her about the Benghazi deal that she destroyed," Trump said on Fox News. "He didn't ask her about a lot of things that she should have been asked about. I mean there's no question about it. He didn't ask her about her foundation. Why? I don't know."
"I may hit her harder in certain ways. I really eased up because I didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. I may hit her harder in certain ways," Trump added later.