Hillary Clinton said Tuesday morning she was "thrilled" about being able to lay out some of her plans for the nation's middle class and families — and delivered a stinger about rival Donald Trump's complaints about his microphone.
"I felt so positive about it – and one of the thoughts that popped in my head was, one of my favorite baseball players growing up, Ernie Banks, used to get so excited about going to play that he'd say, 'Let's play two,'" the Democratic nominee told reporters aboard her presidential campaign plane, in a short segment aired on CNN and other news programs Tuesday.
The stinger, though, came after she had turned her back to go back into her private quarters. At that point a reporter shouted out a question, "What about his stamina?"
"Anybody who complains about the microphone is not having a good night," the former secretary of state shot back.
Trump first complained about the microphone just after the debate, telling a reporter: "They gave me a defective mic . . . I wonder, was that on purpose?"
And on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program Tuesday morning, Trump also complained about the microphone, telling the program it was "terrible" and he wondered if it was "set up that way on purpose . . . when I tested [it], it was beautiful, like an hour before."
He also blamed the microphone on reports he had sniffled throughout the debate.
"The mic was very bad, but maybe it was good enough to hear breathing, but there was no sniffles," Trump insisted.
Clinton said Tuesday the debate allowed viewers to get a real chance to compare her campaign on policy, and "laying out my plan for strong growth and fair growth and dealing with family economic issues like affordable childcare and paid family leave and debt-free college with no real response, no real offer coming from my opponent."
She continued "people can draw their own conclusions" over how Trump's "demeanor, his temperament, his behavior on stage" came across.
"I thought on several occasions he was making charges and claims that were demonstrably untrue," Clinton said. "[He was] offering opinions that I think a lot of people would find offensive and off-putting.
"He can run his campaign and present himself however he chooses. But the real point is about temperament and fitness and qualification. To hold the most important, the hardest job in the world, and I think people saw last night some very clear differences between us."
Trump also said Tuesday he showed "great restraint" by not going after Clinton over husband Bill Clinton's past indiscretions, and Clinton said it is up to him to "run his campaign however he chooses."
"I will continue to talk about what I want to do for the American people, [and] lay out specific plans with very clear goals in mind to help us deal with all the challenges we face," Clinton said.
"I'm excited about where we are in this country. He talks down America every chance he gets. He calls us names. He calls us a third-world country. He talks in such dire and dark terms. That's not what America is. No, we are the best problem solvers in the world. Our diversity is a strength," she continued.
"I am excited about helping to pull our country together, to set some big goals on infrastructure and advance manufacturing and clean energy. To take on climate change, which, by the way, is not a hoax made up by the Chinese."
Clinton also promised reporters she would be at the next debate, planned for Oct. 9 in St. Louis, after she was asked if she's concerned if "Donald Trump will not show up for the next debate?"
"I'm going to show up," Clinton replied. "He gets to decide what he wants to do. I will be there in St. Louis and then after that in Las Vegas. If I'm the only person on stage, well, I'm the only person on stage."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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