WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton jabbed Donald Trump on Tuesday morning about his debate performance.
“Anybody who complains about the microphone is not having a good night,” Clinton told reporters aboard her campaign plane headed to North Carolina.
After the debate, the GOP nominee said he was given a “defective mic.”
“I wonder … Was that on purpose? Was that on purpose?” he said, though the TV audience had no trouble hearing Trump’s responses.
Feeling really good about her first faceoff with Trump, Clinton said her opponent’s “demeanor” and “temperament” came through.
“I thought on several occasions he was making charges and claims that were demonstrably untrue, offering opinions that I think a lot of people would find offensive and off-putting. … The real point is about temperament and fitness and qualification to hold the most important, the hardest job in the world, and I think people saw last night some very clear differences between us,” Clinton said.
The Democratic nominee said she’s looking forward to the second and third debates — on Oct. 9 and 19 — even if Trump doesn’t show up.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump surrogate, said after the debate that if he were Trump, he would not attend the next debate without a guarantee that the moderator will be more balanced than NBC’s Lester Holt in the first debate.
“I’m going to show up,” Clinton said. “If I’m the only person on stage, then I’m the only person on the stage.”
Trump called Holt’s moderating “fine” and “fair” and claimed victory.
“I don’t like to grade myself, but I know I did better than Hillary in every poll,” Trump told “Fox & Friends.” “… I thought it went really well. I mean I had some hostile questions, but that was OK. I thought it went really well. It was the debate of debates.”
Trump is prepared to turn up the heat on Clinton in the next showdowns.
“I may hit her harder in certain ways. I really eased up because I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings,” he said.