WEB EXCLUSIVE

Monday night was the first presidential debate of this election cycle, which finally gave Americans more insight into the contrasts of the two major-party candidates. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) and businessman Donald Trump (R) clashed in a series of fiery arguments, with frequent interjections from the moderator, NBC’s Lester Holt.

Let’s start with the moderation. Compared to the past debates—where many of the moderators were heavily criticized for being biased or unfair—Lester Holt actually received less hate for his conduct. Holt has, however, been scrutinized for not asking Clinton about many of her scandals, such as Benghazi and the Clinton Foundation. He did drill Trump about his tax returns and evasions and his stance on invading Iraq. Many late-night talk show hosts chuckled about how Holt repeatedly asked the audience to keep silent. This added a little unintended comic relief: the audience clapped and booed enthusiastically, and Holt shushed them like he was their dad.

The attacks made by the candidates themselves were of some substance and were well-formulated. For example, Clinton’s attack about Trump’s tax returns was one of the highlights of the night: “maybe he doesn’t want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody’s ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax.”

Although Clinton was wrong (Trump actually did pay income tax three out of five years; he reported large income losses the other two years, and did not pay taxes), this momentarily stunned Trump, and he made a huge mistake. He replied, “That makes me a smart person,” which prompted laughs and gasps from the audience.

First of all, tax evasion is a crime, which should NOT be encouraged. The mistake is that what Trump said is contrary to one of the biggest talking points of his campaign. He has always argued that illegal immigrants should be deported because they are evading taxes. Yet Trump has been accused of the exact same thing, and he is not disproving that claim! Definitely a win for Clinton.

On the other hand, while Trump wasn’t as brash as he usually is, he did launch a great attack against Clinton: “You’ve been in Washington thirty years, and you haven’t thought about this?” he said, referring to trade deals such as NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This attack also created an obstacle for Clinton, as she did not substantially reply.

Trump did need to be fact-checked more than Clinton, however, from topics like NAFTA, to claiming he was opposed to the Iraq War, to denying the fact that he tweeted, “climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese,” and many more. But Clinton needed to be corrected as well, from saying Trump hasn’t paid any federal income tax, to denying she strongly supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to citing an outdated report on Trump’s job policies.

All in all, this debate was an intense clash of two opponents with radically different policies. It left viewers in a renewed state of frenzy about the election season this year. From the constant interrupting between the two candidates, to Trump’s sniffles (sounded like he caught pneumonia from Clinton) and Clinton’s happy dance (when Trump said he had a better temperament than she did), the first presidential debate is a preview of the debates—and presidency—to come.