Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump faced off Monday night at Hofstra University for the first of three presidential debates. Moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, the showdown between the Democratic and Republican candidates for president broke the record for the most-watched presidential debate in U.S. history, with more than 81 million people tuning, according to Nielsen — and that doesn’t include the millions who watched online.
Here’s what Salon writers are saying about last night’s debate performances, themes and outcomes:
The verdicts are in: Hillary wins
- Hillary dominates — and Donald Trump gave the worst debate performance of any candidate ever
- “Down goes Trump! Down goes Trump!”: Burdened by his basket of deplorables, Donald Trump was easily knocked out by Hillary Clinton
- Hillary’s Trump trap: Clinton laid a series of snares, and Donald charged right into them
- Belittling and “braggadocious”: Donald Trump was Donald Trump — the only surprise is that anyone is surprised
Sexism
- Donald Trump is every woman’s workplace nightmare: Debate with Hillary Clinton was a crash course in everyday sexism
- Donald Trump’s “Miss Piggy” problem: Why his criticism of Alicia Machado’s weight matters
- Donald Trump does everything wrong during “Fox & Friends” interview the morning after the first presidential debate
Racism
- Donald Trump’s big debate problem: Hillary Clinton hit the right note on race; Donald Trump went off the rails
- “I say nothing”: Birther godfather Donald Trump refuses to apologize to African-Americans, Obama in first debate
Stop-and-frisk
- Donald Trump may love stop-and-frisk, but it was unconstitutional, racist and ineffective
- “We had to take the guns away”: NRA’s debate “fact-check” curiously silent on Donald Trump’s gun grabbing
How did moderateor Lester Holt do?
- “The most abnormal event I’ve ever witnessed”: In a wild battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Lester Holt was the big loser
- Republicans rip Lester Holt after Donald Trump stumbles during first debate against Hillary Clinton
Who told the truth?
- “A fundamental misunderstanding of accounting”: Scholars give Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton the fact-check treatment
- Ranking Donald Trump’s biggest whoppers: Lies of the first presidential debate
Social media reacts
- Pepe’s post-debate identity crisis: Online alt-right turns on Donald Trump after his presidential debate fiasco
- Twitter goes bananas: From Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit to Donald Trump’s snorting, the social-media hits and misses
The best late-night comedy jokes
- Stephen Colbert on #SnifflingDonald: “He sounded like the coked-up best man in the bathroom at a wedding”
- Seth Meyers on Clinton’s debate zinger delivery: “Nothing like watching Hillary land a joke Sully-style”
