Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of talking tough against the Syrian leader, president Assad, and against the “rebels”, but added that Clinton had no idea who these “rebels” were.
Trump echoed the Russian position on Syria. The most recent ceasefire agreement on Syria collapsed after the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, refused to extracate the “rebels” from ISIS positions as was agreed.
CNN moderator Martha Raddatz desperately tried to prevent Donald Trump from getting in his last salvo on why the Syrian conflict is not being resolved.
Raddatz realised that Trump was about expose the false narrative on Syria, Assad and the so-called “moderate rebels”. She interjected in order to stop the Republican contender from closing his convincing argument against Clinton, but failed.
Trump forcefully ended his explanation of why ISIS is not being defeated in Syria. “She [Hillary Clinton] wants to fight for rebels, there is only one problem, you don’t even know who the rebels are, so what’s the purpose.”
He ended his intervention by applauding Russia’s resolve to deal with terrorists.
“And one thing I have to say, I don’t like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS, Russia is killing ISIS, and Iran is killing ISIS. And those three have now lined up because of our weak foreign policy.”
A focus group conducted by CBS News contributor and pollster Frank Luntz said that Trump won the debate against Clinton.
Of the 30 people who took part in the focus group, 21 said Trump had the greater positive impact on their voting choice, compared to nine for Clinton.
Luntz said that before the debate, eight people were willing to vote for Clinton and nine for Trump. Afterwards, however, 18 said they were willing to vote for the Republican nominee and only four for the former secretary of state.
