On stage at Hofstra Monday night, she has hit all the right notes.
“Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese,” she said. Flustered, Trump started getting more and more irritated. “I did not say that. I did not say that. I did not say that,” he said, huffily, his voice rising, as Clinton continued calmly hitting her talking points. (Also, he did say that.)
She got him to say that exploiting the housing crisis is just “business.” Trump was lured into declaring that avoiding paying taxes “makes me smart.”
She also excelled in her attempts to call Trump out for factual inaccuracies. “Well Donald, I know that you live in your own reality, but those are not the facts,” she said in a sparring match over the TPP. Again, Trump started blustering: “You have no plan. Secretary Clinton you have no plan.”
Trump is good at talking in short, clear talking points, repeating the same message until it sinks in. But here, it sounds as though he is yelling her down in public—not a good move for a politician attempting to win over suburban voters.