Trump Dominates Second Presidential Debate

The first presidential debate was unideal for Donald Trump. Despite Lester Holt’s obvious pro-Hillary bias, I still think Trump came out ahead. Nevertheless, his performance left something to be desired, with Trump holding back and missing a number of opportunities to take the offensive.

Tonight, however, the gloves came off.

The debate began with a question from the audience regarding whether or not the vulgar language used in the presidential debates should be reconsidered, seeing as how many children are expected to watch the debates for homework. Amusingly, neither candidate’s response came remotely close to answering the question; Clinton used the opportunity to talk about diversity, whereas Trump launched into a rather generic spiel about the need to fix America.

The second question proved far more volatile, as Trump was asked about the recently surfaced tape on which Trump is heard making crass remarks about women.

We knew it was coming – there was simply no way they would leave this controversy untouched. Still, I was quite surprised to see this topic brought up so early in the debate.

At first, Trump floundered. He seemed uncharacteristically quiet, uneasy, and subdued as he muttered a few terse apologies. His attempts to convince the audience that the explicit comments in question were nothing more than “locker room talk” seemed entirely unconvincing.

One couldn’t help but wonder if this was it. Was Trump finally stumped?

But the real estate mogul was far from finished. After hearing Hillary smugly prattle about Trump’s treatment of women, Trump fired back – hard. He lambasted Hillary for attacking the women her husband victimized. Quite masterfully, he again described his previous comments as “locker room talk,” but this time stressed the last word: talk. For while Trump is being crucified for what he said, Bill and Hillary are being given a pass on what they’ve actually done.

This was a perfect way to handle the situation, as it completely illustrates the insanity of the establishment witch hunt – and it is a witch hunt – against Trump.

Trump didn’t back down. Going for the throat, he pressed Hillary on her email scandal and all-around corruption. And here’s where it gets good: Trump promised to form a special prosecuting team to go after Hillary Clinton, should he be elected in November.

The moderators then asked Hillary about her emails. As usual, she made a few dubious statements and referred to her crimes as mere “mistakes.” Hillary also claimed to take digital security and classified information very seriously – at which point Trump reminded us that she claimed not know that the letter “C” stands for “classified” on government documents.

When asked about Islamophobia, Trump took the opportunity to talk about the threat of radical Islam; Hillary, unsurprisingly, argued that banning Muslims would only play into the hands of ISIS. In other words, we must be nice to the Muslims or else they will blow us up. Isn’t that lovely? Considering the fact that ISIS can only harm us from within, I think peaceful remigration constitutes a more rational solution.

The debate also covered Obamacare and taxes. Hillary stated her desire to improve Obamacare; Trump, on the other hand, stated that he wants to replace it with something better. On the subject of taxes, Hillary argued for more, while Trump argued for less.

The war in Syria was not only discussed, but also likened to the Holocaust by a moderator. Of course, this wasn’t referring to the brutality of ISIS, which has been indirectly funded by the American government. Instead, it referred to the steps taken by Russia and Syria to actually combat this horrifically brutal band of terrorists. The moderators, and indeed, Hillary as well, framed Russia as a dangerous, aggressive force – a force allied with Bashar al-Assad, a man who has been unfairly vilified by the Western ruling elite.

Regarding Syria, Trump once again posed a very reasonable question: Wouldn’t it be nice if we got along with Russia? He then argued that we should ally with Russia to combat ISIS. The issue, of course, is that the American ruling class doesn’t want to combat ISIS. As we speak, ISIS is fighting against one of Russia’s allies. And in the era of neoconservative foreign policy, there is no greater boogeyman than Russia.

When asked by an African American audience member whether or not Trump would be able to represent all Americans, Trump, without hesitation, responded that he would, in fact, be able to do so. Then, seizing the opportunity, Trump reminded us that it was not him, but Hillary who called millions of Americans “deplorable” and “irredeemable.” Hillary’s response amounted to little more than a weak expression of regret over how she phrased her now-infamous comments on Trump supporters.

Donald and Hillary also sparred over the Supreme Court. To those of us more concerned with hordes of hostile non-Whites flooding into our country, this might not seem like a particularly pressing issue. However, given that four current justices are quite old and could conceivably die within the next eight years, the next American president could very well pack the Supreme Court with allies for life. And, if that next president is Hillary, you can say goodbye to your Second Amendment rights and hello to bolstered hate speech legislation, among other things.

The issue of energy was also given consideration. Hillary stated the need for renewable energy, whereas Trump, while clarifying that he isn’t opposed to renewable energy, argued that it was not enough. He then proceeded to advocate clean coal.

Unlike the first debate, which concluded with two accusatory and irrelevant questions being fired at Trump, the second one ended on a more amiable note: a member of the audience asked each candidate to describe what he or she found respectable in the other. This led to Hillary praising Trump’s children, while Trump claimed to respect Hillary for “never giving up.”

Overall, Trump delivered a spectacular performance. Despite the two moderators being somewhat biased towards Hillary – Martha Raddatz, for the record, was completely horrid and unbearable – Trump managed to not only defend his weak spots, but ruthlessly expose Hillary’s. Also worth noting were Trump’s multiple mentions of George Soros, an individual with whom, unfortunately, most Americans are likely unfamiliar.

The most important takeaway from tonight’s debate, however, is the fact that Trump’s lewd comments from ten years ago failed to harm him – despite the tireless efforts of not only the mainstream media, but also a substantial portion of the Republican Party.

This was their October surprise. It was supposed to destroy him. It didn’t.

Let that sink in.