For all the attempts by the liberal media to paint it as a victory for Hillary Clinton, Trump for the most part gave a spirited performance, and despite being tag-teamed on by both Hillary Clinton and moderator Lester Holt (repeating the violated neutrality of Candy Crowley and Martha Raddatz in the 2012 debates), Trump refused to be boxed in, and ref\used to be denied his ability to respond to a mountain of allegations heaped on him (as compared to the softballs given to Hillary).
It was quite entertaining to see Holt repeatedly try to shut Trump down, and Trump repeatedly seized the time he needed to respond proportionately to what was hurled at him. It was funny after one of those times where Hillary (after waiting for Trump at length to finish his points) said: "WOO !"
But she was attempting to mock Trump, while evading his points about her failures and criminal behavior, and not acknowledging the validity of his defending himself against a mountain of allegations hurled at him, as compared to Hillary not being given fair and equal scrutiny in either the moderator's questions given her, or in the far greater scrutiny and interruptions moderator Holt gave to Trump's answers.
The two best moments were during the discussion of NAFTA and TPP trade agreements, where Hillary attempted to sugarcoat and lie, and Trump just shut her down and rattled her, interrupting her and refusing to let her get away with her lies. That Bill and Hillary were personally responsible for the export of factories and jobs that began with NAFTA, and that Hillary was fully on board for TPP (even as she denied she was for it, and Trump exposed her as having called it the "gold standard of trade agreements" !)
That in 30 years, Hillary had never solved, or even had an interest in the nation's problems, and her alleging to do so now is just empty talk disproven by her lifetime in politics. And her false promises to black voters intertwined in those false talking points.
Also a nice takedown was when Hillary talked about how she would destroy ISIS, and Trump said that she and Obama had the opportunity to destroy ISIS "when it was a little baby, and now it's in over 30 countries" and "now you say you're going to destroy ISIS?!? I don't think so." It was pure Trump, a mixture of pragmatic business sense, and his own personal brand of phrasing and sarcasm.
Yes, Trump got off on a few tangents, led down the rabbit-hole by personal attacks Hillary bombarded him with (and Holt assisted). But overall he made his points well. My only complaint is that Trump didn't fully take Frau Hitlery down as well as he could have.
As Hannity pointed out, about 20 online polls declared Trump the winner. Yet CNN and the mainstream media (including FOX) declared Hillary the winner. That's not what I saw. Trump was in control the whole debate, despite the best attempts to reign him in by both Hillary and the moderator.
