Trump claims his ‘strongest asset’ is ‘my temperament’
Donald Trump — the brash, tough-talking candidate who memorably mocked his Republican primary opponents with derisive nicknames — declared in his first debate with Hillary Clinton on Monday that his strongest asset, “maybe by far,” is his temperament. The GOP nominee’s claim met with laughter in the hall, most likely from his Democratic rival’s supporters.
“I have much better judgment than she does. There’s no question about that. I also have a much better temperament than she does,” Trump said during a vigorous back-and-forth on foreign policy. “I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win. She does not.”
Some in the audience at Hofstra University laughed — and laughed again when Hillary responded with a theatrical “woo! OK.”
She noted that Trump’s response to Iranian vessels harassing U.S. Navy assets in the Persian Gulf was to promise that, if he were president, they’d be “shot out of the water.” Clinton said that would “start another war. That’s not good judgment. That is not the right temperament to be commander in chief.”
The back-and-forth came in the middle of an aggressive foreign policy exchange during which Trump again falsely claimed that he opposed the war in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion. Clinton lost her 2008 presidential run in part because Barack Obama used her vote to authorize force against Iraq as an effective political weapon, and she has since described it as a mistake.
“Donald supported the invasion of Iraq,” Clinton said.
“Wrong,” Trump interjected.
“That is absolutely proved over and over again,” she said.
“Wrong, wrong,” he repeated.
There’s no evidence that the self-described billionaire opposed the invasion, though he turned against it not long after it began. Trump, asked in a 2002 interview with Howard Stern whether he supported using force against Iraq, replied, “Yeah, I guess so. … I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
