Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump share views at Commander-In-Chief Forum
By Michael Hernandez
NEW YORK—Both Presidential candidates shared their views Wednesday at the Commander-In-Chief Forum hosted by NBC’s Matt Lauer aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on Pier 86 at the west side of Manhattan Island.
Political Terrorists: libertynews.com
Lauer, a prominent member of the Clinton Global Initiative, moderated the event which featured Hillary Clinton answering questions first followed by Donald Trump based on a coin-toss won by Trump (who chose to go second).
Both candidates were also asked questions by Democrat, Republican and Independent former military personnel.
Clinton seeking to “prohibit people from buying a gun in the United States” and “No ground troops in Iran or Syria”conflicts
Hillary Clinton made her strongest statement during her concluding Forum remarks when she said she was seeking to “prohibit people from buying a gun in the United States.”
Clinton said that a Commander-In-Chief must have “rock steadiness, mixed with strength to make hard decisions” in her opening remarks.
Event Video
When asked about personal emails received while Secretary of State said, “It was a mistake to have a personal account and I will not do it again. I make no excuses,” Clinton said. “There was no evidence that is factual, that the State Department system was hacked…but most government systems have had hacking repeatedly, even in the White House.”
Clinton was asked about her support for the Iraqi war and she said, “I wouldn’t do it again. I think it was a mistake. But, I also believe that we can learn from the mistakes,” she said. I believe that I am in the “best possible position to understand and prevent future mistakes. I am asking to be judged on the totality of my record.
I view force as a last resort not my first choice.
“I put together the international coalition that imposed sanction on Iran. We can move forward on Iran without having to worry about them being a nuclear force.
“We have to defeat ISIS. That is my highest goal. We will do this with airpower with much more support to Kurds and those fighting on the ground. We will have intelligence and recognizance. We are not going to put ground troops into Iran or Syria. We will support these efforts without committing ground troops.”
When asked how a President Clinton would make the streets of San Bernardino and Boston safer? “We will have more cooperation from Europe and the Middle East.”
Trump seeks to assist a “military that is sadly depleted” and fix a “corrupt Veterans Administration”
“My campaign theme is to make America great again. We will make America strong again. We’re not strong. We’re the greatest people but our military is sadly depleted,” said Trump.
“I was against the war in Iraq” reported by Esquire magazine in 2004. “It destabilized the region. It was a disastrous war that was badly handled by Barack Obama.
“When we took everyone out of Iraq, ISIS was formed. We are now looking at Iran taking over Iraq. We shouldn’t have been there, but if we are going to get out, we should have taken the oil. Now ISIS is in control over the largest oil reserves in the world.
“We spent three trillion dollars and lost thousands of lives. We got nothing. To the victor should go the spoils.
“Our leadership did not follow what our experts, our intelligence said to do. They are not happy. Our leaders did not follow their recommendations.
“Look at the wait time that veterans have; six to seven days. Veterans are dying as they are waiting to see a doctor. Under part of my plan for assistance, they can “choose their doctor and hospital themselves. We will pay the bill.
“The Veterans Administration is a corrupt enterprise. We have a massive problem of sexual abuse in the military. The numbers are staggering. We need a court system (that works) in the military. We have 26,000 sexual cases reported and only 200 convictions. No one gets prosecuted. This is so evil.”
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service, founder of History Makers International, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email: [email protected] or by calling (818) 263-9881.
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I don’t think this has changed the minds of those who have already made them up, but I do think it might have an affect on those who haven’t made their minds up yet.