2016 Presidential Debate: “America’s Direction”
Where the candidates stand:
Immigration
Trump launched his campaign with this issue, and has talked about building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border many times.
“We’re going to do a wall. We’re going to have a big, fat, beautiful door on the wall. We’re going to have people come in, but they’re going to come in legally. … Mexico’s going to pay for the wall,” he has said.
He initially said he wanted to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, but earlier this month said he’d prioritize the deportation of 5 to 6.5 million people.
He believes Muslims should face extra immigration hurdles.
Clinton does not favor a wall or deportations. Also, in a break with President Obama’s approach, she pledged not to deport any illegal immigrants except violent criminals and terrorists, which could vastly increase the number of people who would be allowed to stay in the country.
“If Congress refuses to act, as president I would do everything possible under the law to go even further (than President Obama),” she has said.
Race
Both presidential candidates are courting minority voters.
Trump, in particular, has struggled to balance a message that appeals to his white, working-class base with one that improves his standing with minorities. He was slow to disavow former KKK leader David Duke earlier in the year and has repeatedly promoted tweets by white supremacists during his White House bid. The Republican nominee also recently admitted for the first time publicly that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
Clinton has made curbing gun violence and police brutality central to her candidacy. In remarking on recent shootings of black men by police officers in North Carolina and Tulsa, Oklahoma, Clinton said the two names were added to “a long list of African-Americans killed by police officers. It’s unbearable and it needs to become intolerable.”
Trump accused Clinton of supporting – “with a nod” – “the narrative of cops as a racist force in our society.”
Trump’s call for a nation united in “the spirit of togetherness” was undercut by his suggestion that drugs are a “very, very big factor” in violent protests in North Carolina, and his call for Chicago to adopt “stop and frisk” policing tactics that have been condemned as racial profiling.
Clinton has faced criticism of her own for saying half of Trump’s supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables” because they are racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic.
Health care
A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund examined some major health care proposals from the presidential candidates and found that Clinton would provide coverage for an additional 9 million people, while Trump would cause about 20 million to lose coverage.
The 2016 presidential campaign has brought voters to a crossroads on health care yet again. The U.S. uninsured rate stands at a historically low 8.6 percent, mainly because of President Obama’s health care law, which expanded government and private coverage. Yet it’s uncertain if the nation’s newest social program will survive the election.
Trump would repeal “Obamacare” and replace it with a new tax deduction, insurance market changes, and a Medicaid overhaul.
Clinton would increase financial assistance for people with private insurance and expand government coverage as well.
Energy and the environment
Clinton, who believes in climate change, has said she’ll fight efforts to roll back clean-power initiatives.
“I won’t let anyone take us backward, deny our economy the benefits of harnessing a clean energy future, or force our children to endure the catastrophe that would result from unchecked climate change,” she said.
Trump does not believe in climate change and says efforts to mitigate it are expensive and unnecessary.
He tweeted, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Sources: Associated Press and The Washington Post