Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, told Newsmax TV he was not impressed by either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton at Wednesday's "Commander-in-Chief Forum" in New York City, but believes the Republican presidential candidate came off better than his Democratic rival.
"I thought they were both pretty awful last night," Kristol told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Thursday. "Neither Trump nor Hillary convinced me they should be commander in chief.
"But I would say just analytically in terms of what happened, I thought Trump actually did pretty well and this should have been Hillary Clinton's strongest evening, really.
"She has all the experience, she has Matt Lauer doing the interview, presumably this should have been her moment to shine, to show she knows detail, to be presidential and let Trump be Trump, which is very much of a mixed bag."
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Kristol said the billionaire real-estate tycoon did "didn't make any horrible mistakes" and called Clinton's performance "weak."
"She's a horrible candidate,” Kristol told Malzberg.
". . . I don't like either of them, but Trump is gaining on her and they're rattled. If I were in the Clinton camp, I would be very worried about that first debate."
He added, while Trump makes statements "depending on your point of view are either mildly embarrassing or annoying or even disqualifying," Clinton "repeats them."
"That's her campaign," Kristol said. "Her campaign is to disqualify Donald Trump. That might work, he gives plenty of opportunities for people to have severe doubts about whether he should be president of the United States. But does she have anything more than that? I mean, it is really startling.
"We've all seen negative campaigns, but usually there's at least some positive aspect to it. What is Hillary Clinton's agenda? And I don't even ask that rhetorically . . . I really don't know. Can anyone summarize it?"
Kristol said no matter what people think of Trump, he is talking policy.
"He's going to build the wall; he's going to renegotiate the trade deals; he hates the free trade stuff," Kristol told Malzberg. "I disagree with him on that, but fine, he's going to build our military up, and then never use it because he never wants to get involved anywhere, fine.
". . . Hillary Clinton is the candidate of status quo . . . I think one thing Donald Trump should do is ask Hillary Clinton, what major changes are you going to bring about in American policy, foreign policy, or domestic policy? Just name a change? Any change?"
But Kristol said he is still not ready to cast his ballot for Trump in November.
"No, not really – I mean, I just think he has such bad character," he said. "Having been through a few of these election cycles, I think Hillary Clinton will probably win, but I think the odds of her winning are like 3-1, not 20-1."