About a dozen Hawaii County Democrats gathered in Keaukaha on the Big Island to watch the second Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debate Sunday afternoon, and most seemed to come away mystified.
Hawaii Democrats gathered on Hawaii island, Maui and Oahu to watch the second of three Clinton-Trump debates, but the Hawaii Republicans apparently did not sponsor similar events. Senior Hawaii GOP officials said they were unaware of any party events staged to watch the Sunday debate.
This has been a presidential election in which neither side seems able to fathom the political appeal of the opposing candidate, and Mountain View resident Deb Billings said she was “appalled” by the exchange.
“I think Donald Trump is one of the most repulsive, ugly individuals, and his rhetoric is sickening, honest to goodness,” said
Billings, 62. “This is not the America that I was born and raised in.”
Billings, who is a Muslim, cited Trump statements “trashing” Hispanic immigrants and others.
“I think it spells doom and gloom if he is elected, I really do, and I am surprised at seeing various groups sign-waving, and the fact that anybody in Hawaii would support Donald Trump baffles me,” she said. “It just baffles me.”
“She can get things done, she can negotiate,” Billings said of Clinton. “Him, he’s just a buffoon and a bully, and he’s laughable.”
Gretchen Klungness, a paralegal, sported a blue “Hawaii Island for Hillary 2016” T-shirt, and shook her head when Trump asserted that Clinton is “all talk.”
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Klungness told the room of people watching the debate. She said the presidential race this year has been unique.
“I’ve not seen anything quite so despicable,” she said. “The quality of the Trump campaign and his demeanor is so indescribably awful that I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, and I’ve been following politics since I was 18, and I’m almost 70.”
Gerri Kahili, 61, said Clinton won the second debate and that Trump is “getting desperate.”
“When you ask him a question, there’s never any specifics on his plan,” Kahili said. “The first thing out of his mouth is blame — blame Obama, blame Democrats.”
Kahili said she doubts the debate changed anyone’s opinion of the candidates, and contended that Trump has lost the women’s vote.
“It’s over,” she said. “I’m trying to be really nice about it, but he is an idiot. The things he says — ‘I know more about Iraq than the generals, I know everything, more than everybody’ — give me a break.”
A group of about 50 Clinton supporters packed the Hillary for Hawaii headquarters at Ward Warehouse to watch the debate.
Despite the different format and a noticeably more hostile overall tone, compared with the first debate, several in attendance said the debate was predictable. And to many in the room proudly wearing Clinton campaign stickers on their tops, the conclusion was largely foregone.
“It was very predictable,” said interior designer Lynnsey Doles. “I thought Hillary answered questions more appropriately, and I felt Donald Trump was defensive.”
Doles’ husband, Gilbert, a Honolulu attorney, came to very much the same assessment.
“The way that Trump approached today, he tried but he failed utterly,” he said. “He reverted back to himself and it was predictable. It was so ineffective that it was predictable.”
The audience at the headquarters started out in good spirits, laughing derisively when Trump pledged to help “the African-Americans” and “the Latinos,” and tittering at his first few noticeable sniffle-snorts — a mannerism that was widely commented upon after the first debate.
But the mood turned to outrage when Trump went on the offensive about Clinton’s supposed complicity in the alleged sexual misdeeds of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and later when Trump said he would ask the attorney general to assign a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s mishandling of confidential email.
While national pundits credited Trump with reassuring his base following a week of ugly scandal and subsequent Republican defections, he did little to impress Clinton’s most ardent supporters.
“Trump was predictable and deplorable,” said 68-year-old Michael Salling. “It’s mind-boggling to me that Trump could face America after the debacle of the last 48 hours, and I was amazed at his performance. I think he knows he’s going down. Hillary Clinton continues to be amazing in the way she shows what 30 years of devoted service by a courageous, intelligent woman gives. Her election is going to be a paradigm shift for our nation and will inspire women and girls for generations to come.”
Trump did deliver the biggest laugh of the afternoon when he deferred the first response to an Obamacare question to Clinton, remarking, “I’m a gentleman.”
The apparent irony was too much for one audience member, who stood up and left the room. “I can’t take him no more,” the man said, shaking his head.
Those who stayed enjoyed an unexpected high note when debate audience member Karl Becker asked the candidates to identify something positive about other.
The crowd clapped politely for Clinton’s answer (“I respect his children”) but whooped loudly when Trump acknowledged Clinton’s tenacity, calling her “a fighter.”
