During the opening debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, voters were treated to a back-and-forth tirade between the Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls. But, despite all the criticisms, Trump revealed that he actually held off his indiscretions out of respect for his rival’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
At the first leg of the presidential debate held at Hofstra University, Trump and Hillary tackled the various pressing matters concerning the country and its citizens such as tax cuts, the NAFTA trade deal and gun violence.
As they went through the various topics, both Trump and Hillary couldn’t help but to interrupt and throw verbal jabs at one another. Eventually, the Democratic candidate’s strategy of getting under her opponent’s skin worked as Trump, who describes himself as a counter-puncher debater, succumbed to Hillary’s personal criticisms.
Following Monday’s debate, which lasted for over an hour, Trump revealed that he decided not to pursue his originally planned line of criticism out of respect for his rival’s family.
Specifically, Trump noted that he decided not to personally attack Hillary’s family by avoiding Bill Clinton’s impeachment due to his scandal with Monica Lewinsky.
“I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary, to her family and I said to myself ‘I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. It’s inappropriate. It’s not nice,” he said after the event.
“I’m really happy I was able to hold back on the indiscretions in respect to Bill Clinton,” he told CNN. “Because I have a lot of respect for Chelsea Clinton.”
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was also in attendance at the debate, noted that Trump restrained himself from using Bill’s alleged affair with Lewinsky to attack Hillary. The ex-city mayor also took a shot at Hillary by saying that even though she calls herself a feminist, she incessantly “attacked” the former White House intern for six months after the controversy involving Bill emerged.
