Monday, September 26, 2016
Combined dispatches
NEW YORK
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been locked in a fierce election battle for months, but tens of millions of Americans will compare their presidential bona fides side-by-side anew tonight.
The first of three debates promises to be a national sensation, contrasting two vastly different New Yorkers who are recognized around the world. Clinton, known for her extensive experience in government, is more comfortable discussing substantive issues than pitching her candidacy; and Trump excels as a self-promoter and an unsparing critic of his adversaries.
On Sunday, Clinton and Trump met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, giving each candidate fresh bragging rights about their knowledge of foreign policy and readiness to lead the nation on the eve of their first presidential debate.
Trump and Netanyahu discussed “at length” Israel’s use of a fence to help secure its borders, an example Trump frequently cites when he’s talking about the wall he wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico.
“Trump recognized that Israel and its citizens have suffered far too long on the front lines of Islamic terrorism,” the campaign said in a statement. “He agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu that the Israeli people want a just and lasting peace with their neighbors, but that peace will only come when the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State.”
Clinton said a “strong and secure Israel” is vital to the United States after she met with Netanyahu on Sunday evening.
Reporters were barred from covering the meeting. Clinton’s campaign said in a statement released afterward that she “reaffirmed her unwavering commitment” to the U.S.-Israel relationship. Clinton also stressed her support for the new military aid agreement reached earlier in September and her commitment to countering efforts to boycott Israel.
The meeting was designed to put Israel on good footing with the next U.S. president. But it also served to showcase the candidates’ expertise in foreign policy in the shadow of their first debate tonight, six weeks before Election Day. Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state, often says that Trump does not know enough about the world and lacks the temperament to be president. Trump has argued that he has extensive experience with foreign policy through his career as a business executive and blames Clinton for many of the nation’s stumbles in foreign policy.
Meanwhile, the candidates deployed their top supporters to the Sunday shows to take early jabs at their opponents and lower expectations for a showdown expected to draw 75 million viewers – many of them disenchanted with both candidates, the least-popular presidential hopefuls in history.
Facts and who will determine them during the 90-minute debate seemed to be a top concern of the campaigns’ strategists given Trump’s habit of saying things that are untrue and the public’s general distrust of Clinton.