WASHINGTON: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that he really loved the experience of participating in the first presidential debate and claimed that he won the clash against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, as per several online polls.
“I really loved the experience of it. It was amazing. I saw the audience was record-setting. And I had a great time,” Trump told Fox news in an interview.
“I know you say the polls were not scientific. But every single poll that was taken I won the debate and some of them by a lot. And Google just came out with the first real poll and it was a big one. And I’m up by 2 or 3 points. So that was pretty good,” he argued.
Trump alleged that whatever Clinton talked about during the debate – her policies – is not going to happen.
“As she was talking about the various things and I started to say wait a minute, Hillary, you have been there for 26 years and you haven’t done it, why all of a sudden are you going to do it? You’re not going to do it,” the 70-year-old reality TV star said.
“You are going to get votes. Then after the votes it’s going to be see you later, I’ll see you in four years or whatever. But that hit me during the debate I think more than any other time, whether it’s health care or child care or any of the things that she talks about. Bill, it’s not going to happen, OK? It’s just not going to happen. These people talk, I mean, her in particular. She talks and nothing gets done,” he alleged.
Responding to a question as to why he was not critical of Clinton when he had not joined politics, Trump said then he was a businessman.
“I was a businessman. I was all over the world. I was doing great. And frankly I got along with all politicians. It was my job to get along with politicians. I didn’t go around criticising very many of them, almost none of them, because when you are a businessman you have to get along with the politicians, both Democrats and Republicans,” he said.
Trump denied the allegations that he said during the debate that he did not pay any taxes.
“No, I didn’t say that. What she said is maybe you paid no taxes. I said, well, that would make me very smart,” he said.
“I have to tell you something, tax is a big expense. And I would mind paying taxes a lot less if our politicians knew how to spend the money, but they don’t. They waste the money. They don’t know what they are doing with the money. Some cases they do and they have bad motives. But they basically don’t know what they are doing, with the money,” he said.
“And whether it goes into the Middle East — I see the other day a report comes out USD 6 trillion, spent on the Middle East. We could have rebuilt our country twice. And USD 6 trillion was spent on the Middle East. And where are we? Go back 15 years if we did nothing we would be in much better shape than we are now. It’s a mess,” he said.
PTI