Trump ‘met expectations,’ Ryan says, some GOPers disagree
US House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from the state of Wisconsin, says he is satisfied with the performance of his party’s nominee, Donald Trump, against his rival, Hillary Clinton, at the first national debate in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Ryan, who had called on Trump to over-prepare for Monday’s debate aired on CNN, said the real estate mogul had “met expectations.”
“I think people met their expectations. And I think Hillary gave a very polished, well-rehearsed defense of the status quo, and I think Donald Trump gave a unique Donald Trump response to the status quo,” Ryan (pictured below) said. “And I see emerging in front of us the potential for what a unified Republican government can get you, which can be a solution for our country’s big problems.”
“I think he gave a spirited argument and I think he passed a number of thresholds — that for 90 minutes he can go toe-to-toe with Hillary Clinton.”
Trump took things ‘too personal’
Some other Republican lawmakers, however, gave poor reviews to the New York billionaire’s performance.
“Trump got off to a good start, but it was obvious he wasn’t prepared,” one House Republican who publicly supports Trump told The Hill. “His performance was scattered. He didn’t drive home [questions about Clinton’s] honesty and missed great opportunities.”
Another House representative suggested that Trump should have focused longer on Clinton’s use of private email serve as secretary of state.
“He only mentioned her email scandal once,” said Illinois GOP Representative Rodney Davis, adding, “There is no better question to be able to pivot on when she completely failed on her own cybersecurity when she was secretary of state.”
David, a Trump supporter, asserted that he should have attacked foreign policies in the administration of Hillary’s husband, Bill Clinton, particularly giving aid to North Korea, which help it to develop a nuclear arsenal.
“If Hillary Clinton is trying to own the successes of the Bill Clinton presidency, she’s going to have to own the failures,” Davis said. “And a complete failure was negotiating with North Korea.”
“I think he took things a little too personal and missed a lot of opportunities to make very good debate points that could have scored him much higher in the eyes of the American public.”
