Lady and the Trump

I’ll start from the last two minutes! Clinton and Trump both were given one minute each by the moderator Chris Wallace, to describe how they will make the United States a better country. And frankly, for most Pakistanis as well as for a large population of Trump-haters all over the world, he simply turned out to be a disaster!"

In follow up of its previous schedule, Geo News cut live over to this 90-minute long fierce and fiery showdown for its viewers in Pakistan and abroad early today between 6am to 7:30am PST, involving this side of the world to follow the actions connected to the upcoming U.S Presidential Elections - one of the world’s most discussed, watched, reported and talked about event taking place on November 8, 2016. The venue of the debate was University of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Although Donald J. Trump made his best to keep his tradition of making abrupt comments, jumping onto issues unexpectedly and distracting others intermittently, he must have attracted most of Pakistani politicians and people by expressing doubts over the expected results of the elections – a tradition very much common among Pakistani politicians especially those who belonged to the ‘Kaptaan’s School of Thought’ that says: ‘The results are always suspected, elections are always rigged, if we lose!’
 
The moment came when Chris Wallace put the question to Trump whether could he promise to accept the results? “What I am saying is that I’ll tell you at the time; I’ll keep you in suspense,” is how the Republican candidate expressed his doubts over the results of the elections - considered the most transparent and most acceptable worldwide in modern times. Therefore, one could safely assess, suspecting the results is the second tradition that Pakistani politicians have in common with Trump – the first being the tradition of levelling allegations against opponents consistently, without having legally sufficient proofs! And once again, I would reluctantly mention, the first politician that comes to our mind in this case too, is the Kaptaan, and the first party is his party. Nevertheless, this assessment, in any case, doesn’t imply that the rest of the politicians and parties in the country do not exploit the tool of shifting blames and levelling allegations. Although these two are the ‘apparatuses’ that have mostly worked well in building pressure on the opponents, most, rather all, of these practitioners lack sufficient legal grounds to establish their respective versions.

“I didn't even apologize to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn't do anything! I think they either want fame, or her campaign did it.”
 

Coming back to the debate, the overall atmosphere was predominantly hostile. But the fieriest question that hit the Republican candidate hard, was about claims by nine women that Trump had allegedly manhandled in the past 30 years. Evidently disturbed and irritated, Trump retaliated: “Those stories have been largely debunked. I think it was her (Clinton’s) campaign that did it.” He however, somewhat got control over himself the next moment, and said: “I didn't even apologize to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn't do anything! I think they either want fame, or her campaign did it.”

Trump’s clarification and defensive behavior raise questions over similar scandals and stories that involve many politicians in our country. Going by our history, we witness heads of the state, party chiefs and politicians involved in scandals connected to their relations with women other than their (legitimate) wives. So liberal and so forgetful our voters are! They continue to support them unlike the people of the United States who just can’t accept Trump if he’s actually found guilty in the nine-woman scam.

While the first actual fireworks erupted over immigration, Trump said illegal immigrants have killed the children of four American women present in the audience. He also pointed out that heavy amounts of Heroin are smuggled into the United States because of weak borders. Frankly, in spite of all her objective sympathy for the immigrants, Clinton couldn’t retaliate much on this. The issue is surely serious.  

We can relate here once again, I suppose. Pakistanis have already suffered heavily for accommodating millions of Afghan Refugees. The issues are almost identical: Afghans have been involved in drug smuggling and killing besides countless incidents of socio-political unrest in all the four provinces. But the issue remains unresolved and I tell you, nobody would ever lose his / her seat in any elections even if found guilty of having failed in resolving the long pending issue. Over the past many years, in spite of countless discussions and plans for their respectful return, successive governments have miserably failed to implement. Trump is absolutely right when it comes to this part of his policy on immigrants.    

The debate, at several moments, also reminded of many of our politicians known for their repetitive rhetoric. Trump hit Clinton hard at Benghazi widows, whereas the latter criticized him on his aggressive stance over immigration each time they appeared in debates. While her email leaks and Clinton Foundation have mostly been Trump’s prime targets, she irresistibly keeps targeting Trump on his alleged tax evasion. They re-exchanged their views on gun rights and the treatment of women.

This, being the last debate between them, makes good news that there won’t be much of such repetitions anymore at least in such an organized manner.

Clinton is believed to be a popular candidate in view of Pakistan’s politico-economic future, yet some of her usual slogans may not necessarily be acceptable for a larger population of the country. It surely has to take decades for our people to support her views on gay rights, lesbians and abortion. And certainly, these of her views aren’t going to be a part of the imports the country is going to have from the United States in next four or five years. So it’s safe until the time comes. In the debate however, she talked about appointing populist justices who would make decisions on the basis of their rights.

The entire atmosphere remained hostile till the end, keeping the rivals from handshakes throughout the debate. Apart from the candidates themselves, their families too artfully skipped handshakes – a gesture that had been a tradition of the US Presidential Debates right since the day one. A western proverb says, “A man’s handshake is his word.” So if Donald J. Trump fails to shake hands with Clinton, does it really mean this has something to do with any of his words?

*The writer is a senior journalist working for Geo/Jang group

 Views of the author do not reflect that of Geo News