During the first presidential debate on Monday, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton proposed increasing airstrikes against the Islamic State group and continuing to target its leaders in the Middle East. Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, criticized the former secretary of State for "telling the enemy everything you want to do."
The first of three scheduled debates lasted about 100 minutes, and about one-third of it was devoted to national security issues. But throughout the evening, both candidates made references to various threats facing the country.
As he's said before, Trump faulted Clinton's policies and decision-making while at the State Department, saying they enabled ISIS to gain a foothold in the Middle East. It's an accusation her campaign has vigorously denied.
"President [Barack] Obama and Secretary Clinton created a vacuum the way they got out of Iraq, because … the way they got out was a disaster," Trump said during the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. "She's been trying to take them out for a long time.
"But they wouldn't even have been formed if they left some troops behind, like 10,000 or maybe something … or if we had taken the oil."
Clinton laughed off those comments. She noted the status-of-forces agreement that began the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in 2008, a deal negotiated by Obama’s Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush.
Clinton said more effort is required to prevent the radicalization of would-be ISIS operatives outside of the Middle East. She promised, too, to step up military action against the group.
"We also have to intensify our airstrikes against ISIS, and eventually support our Arab and Kurdish partners to be able to actually take out ISIS in Raqqa and their aim of being a caliphate," she said, referring to the group's de facto capital in Syria.
"We're making progress. Our military is assisting in Iraq. And we're hoping within a year we'll be able to push them out of Iraq and really squeeze them in Syria. … I would also do everything possible to take out their leadership."
She also pressed Trump on his claims of having always opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion, an attack he denied.
"That is mainstream media nonsense put out by her," Trump said. "I was against the war in Iraq. … The record shows that I'm right."
Trump acknowledged giving an interview to radio host Howard Stern in 2002, during he which supported invading Iraq, but the business mogul said he changed his mind shortly thereafter. Clinton leveraged the issue to suggest, as she has throughout the campaign, that Trump is unstable, untrustworthy and unfit to serve as commander in chief.
"The other day I saw Donald saying that there were some Iranian sailors on a ship in the waters off of Iran, and they were taunting American sailors who were on a nearby ship," Clinton said. "He said ‘if they taunted our sailors, I'd blow them out of the water and start another war.’ That's bad judgment."
Trump countered by raising questions again about Clinton’s use of a private computer server to store sensitive emails while serving as secretary of State, and he questioned her stability and stamina.
"I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament," Trump said. "I have a winning temperament. I know how to win. She does not."
The two sparred over U.S. commitments to foreign allies, with Clinton pledging to honor agreements to NATO nations and accusing Trump of threatening to abandon them.
Trump pledged "I want to help all of our allies," but he said the country will not foot the bill for others' complete defense needs.
"We are losing billions and billions of dollars," he said. "We cannot be the policeman of the world. We cannot protect countries all over the world."
The next presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 9 in St. Louis.
The vice presidential candidates will hold their only debate of the campaign on Oct. 4 in Virginia. Follow @LeoShane
Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at
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Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
