Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are back on the hustings and both are claiming victory, after the first Presidential debate played out to a television audience of 84 million across the United States.
“Wow, did anybody see that debate last night?” asked Hillary Clinton to her faithful supporters at a rally in North Carolina.
“Almost every single poll has us winning the debate against crooked Hillary. Big league,” declared Donald Trump to thousands in the Florida suburb of Melbourne.
The Republican nominee has complained about a faulty microphone during yesterday’s battle at Hofstra University in New York. But his Democratic rival was having none of it.
“Anyone who complains about the microphone is not having a good night,” Ms Clinton told reporters.
In a choreographed fight back during the debate, Hillary Clinton reminded Donald Trump about former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, who claimed Mr Trump called her “Miss Piggy”.
Alicia Machado gained weight after winning the crown in 1996, and alleged Donald Trump bullied her into exercising in front of a packed media. She said she suffered anorexia and bulimia as a result of the way she was treated.
Now a US citizen, Alicia Machado has joined the Clinton Campaign team and is doorknocking for the Democrat.
“For me this election is like a bad dream,” Ms Machado told reporters in a teleconference after the debate organised by the Clinton Camp.
“Watching this guy (Trump) doing stupid things, and so misogynistic. It’s like a bad dream.”
Trump's game plan
Trump is vowing to hit Clinton harder in the next US presidential debate after she put him on the defensive by accusing him of being racist, sexist and a tax dodger during their first matchup.
Clinton blasted Trump again on Tuesday the day after a forceful performance in the first of three scheduled presidential debates ahead of the election.
The New York real estate mogul, she said, "was making charges and claims that were demonstrably untrue, offering opinions that I think a lot of people would find offensive and off-putting".
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Trump, making his first run for public office, praised himself for not attacking Clinton about the marital infidelity of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, during the debate at Hofstra University but said in a morning interview with Fox News that he may take up the attack line going forward.
Trump added that when Clinton criticised him for his treatment of women, he resisted.
"I was going to hit her with her husband's women. And I decided I shouldn't do it because her daughter was in the room."
Clinton brushed off Trump's vow, saying, "He can run his campaign however he chooses".
Trump himself had a high-profile affair with Marla Maples, the woman who would be his second wife while he was still married to his first wife, Ivanka Trump. He eventually divorced Maples and married his third and current wife, Melania Trump.
The television audience for debate looks set to approach 80-million viewer record for such events set in 1980, early Nielsen viewership data cited by US media suggested.
Trump sought to deflect criticism of his debate performance, saying the debate moderator, Lester Holt of NBC News, asked him "very unfair questions" and that he was given a "very bad" microphone.
Clinton, speaking to reporters on her campaign plane, said, "Anyone who complains about the microphone is not having a good night".
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With AAP
