Who Won the 3rd Presidential Debate of 2016?

Speaking with TJ Walker, the show where we dissect how and what world class leaders communicate. It's just been a couple of minutes since the third and final debate of 2016 concluded. So who won? I won't beat around the bush. Hillary Clinton won this debate. Here's my analysis of how this is going to play out politically and then I'll talk about the specifics of messaging, who had the best and worst sound bites, body language and that sort of thing. And do want to say hello to our live Facebook audience. We're basically doing three things at once. Those of you listening on the podcast, it is most likely the day after the debate and I'm recording this just a few moments after the debate concluded. So I'm not filtering anyone else's analysis into this. This is purely my own. Some of you are watching on YouTube, I'm recording this by video. But some of you are joining us on Facebook Live just moments afterwards. So I appreciate you joining in. Please pop in your questions and I'll respond to your questions on Facebook. Well, so here's the big picture of what happened. I believe Hillary delivered a very solid performance. Donald Trump, I think to his supporters, delivered a solid performance. He didn't have a complete meltdown. I think that in places like the Drudgery Port where they have the instant polls, he'll win by 90%. I don't think Donald Trump did anything to create further, further losses in his support. But I can't for the life of me see that he had any messages or any part of his style that would have really convinced undecided voters. Now, his problem was not just to maintain his base. His problem was to stop the hemorrhaging of votes, to change the dynamic in this campaign, to knock Hillary down, to upset her some way, get her ruffled, have her make a mistake, have some winning sound bites of the night, change the dynamic to actually start winning votes, new undecided votes, but also winning support away from Hillary. He clearly, absolutely did not do that. I would stake my life on that. My 35 at this point, 40 years of following presidential campaigns, he did not do that tonight. So what did happen? I think the most significant part of the night was Donald Trump just going on record when Chris Wallace, not exactly some liberal media stooge. Chris Wallace of Fox News Channel really pinning down Donald Trump on the whole issue of will you accept the results of the election? Every major presidential candidate in the history of the country has your party says it should. Will you? And Donald Trump essentially sounded like a third World dictator. He basically said, if he wins, it's great. If not, he'll just wait and see. And by the way, my opponents are criminal and shouldn't be allowed to run. Now, if you don't like Hillary Clinton, that's fine, but when you start saying your opponent shouldn't be allowed to run, it really does start to sound like something from the 1950s, early 60s, either Soviet era, right wing or left wing, totalitarian, a dictatorship of Central America, Africa perhaps. It just doesn't sound like something you expect to hear from the United States in 2016. I am recording this just a few moments after the debate concluded, but I do think that that is going to be the defining moment of the campaign because now the media can go out to all the various Republican Party leaders, the John McCains of the world, the Mitt Rose Romneys of the world, and have them go on record as denouncing Donald Trump on this issue of accepting election returns. So that was, I think, the biggest issue. Now, Donald Trump did get some of his attacks in on Hillary Clinton. He attacked on email, Benghazi, other issues, but she never took the bait. In order for an attack to work, it has to ruffle an opponent. You have to get them defensive. And by my count, I never saw Hillary Clinton act defensive in the whole evening. She was, I thought, surprisingly aggressive against Donald Trump tonight when it came to just constant attacks. No matter what came up, she said, oh, by the way, you want to talk about trade and workers, well, your casino right down the street was built by Chinese workers, Chinese steel. I mean, she seemed to really have her facts, her homework done in ways that were meant to specifically burn him, to rattle him and to get under his skin. And I do think she did that. Now, Donald Trump has always interrupted. He's known for someone not being particularly happy to listen to others, especially women. But it just seemed as though she rattled him even more. He was wrong, wrong, wrong constantly. At one point, I just couldn't tell if I was watching an actual presidential debate or if this was Alec Baldwin's caricature from a Saturday Night Live sketch. And speaking of facts, where Chris Wallace specifically called out Donald Trump for getting his facts wrong on a previous foreign affairs debate, and Donald Trump still cannot admit he's ever wrong. Hillary Clinton did a fantastic job of showing how Donald Trump never admits he's wrong and that anytime something doesn't go his way, he claims it's rigged. He claimed that Republican primaries were rigged. He claimed that it was rigged at the Emmys when he didn't win an Emmy for the Apprentice. So I just thought her attacks were much more targeted and highly specific and would come across as fair to certainly to her supporters, but to undecided voters. And yes, there are undecided voters at this point. I think anyone listening is genuinely undecided, even if they disliked both. Because the polls show, in fact, that most voters who are undecided at this point really, really don't like Hillary Clinton and they really don't like Donald Trump. I think she did what she needed to do to make those undecided voters feel a lot more comfortable with her. And I do not think that Donald Trump did anything to make those people feel like he really, truly is presidential or they'd be more comfortable with him with his finger on the button. Now, other basic body language, communication skills. I thought Hillary looked a little nervous right at the beginning. Her eyes were darting left and right. Beyond that, she came across as comfortable, confident, relaxed, and she is exuding sort of confidence you get when polls show you up 7% and winning almost every battleground state. So that confidence is starting to come out of her in a way that doesn't seem arrogant yet, but you could definitely see the confidence in her. Donald Trump continues to have this sniffing problem. Now, I don't think that Donald Trump has a cocaine problem. I'm not alleging that. But I have to say if Hillary Clinton did that, I think the so called alt right, the conservative media would certainly be pushing that theme. Interestingly, Donald did not stress this whole theme that Hillary Clinton is not physically fit enough to be president tonight. A lot of his handlers had been pushing that theme earlier in the day to political reporters and that did get out a lot in the pre debate spin. So that's my assessment for this political. Oh, other things about Trump, he continues to frown. Just I'm the tough guy. I don't think that helps him. And there's certain men who feel like that's macho. But when it comes to reaching undecided voters, women voters, it just makes them look sort of mean and angry. It's especially odd when there are several takes there, several takes there, and those of you hearing a little coughing. My wife is nice enough to hold the camera for the live Facebook feed that we're doing tonight. And I hope you do okay and I appreciate you holding the camera here. And unfortunately I've not figured out the technology of how you can do a live Facebook feed through a regular broadcast camera. I know there's a technical way of doing it, but it's for some reason, Facebook makes it wildly complex. So I have to not have to. My wife is nice enough to hold my iPhone up. That's how we're capturing this live feed for Facebook. But I'll get you a glass of water in just a moment. Speaking of wives, one of the most interesting aspects of the whole debate was when Donald Trump was confronted with all these allegations about all the women who have accused him of groping them. Hillary Clinton again did a great job of factually laying it all out there. And Donald Trump said, oh, they're all liars and oh, Hillary Clinton put them up to it. And then he said it was so obvious. Lies. I didn't even apologize to my wife. That's another aspect that I think is going to get some play in the analysis of this whole debate in the coming week, that he doesn't even have to apologize to his wife when women are coming out of the woodworks accusing him of groping them. And an awful lot of them have a tremendous number of witnesses who corroborate the incidents in a contemporaneous fashion. Bill Maher, the pundit, pointed out this is in response to Donald Trump's allegation that the women are just doing it for attention and publicity and career ambition. He said. Bill Maher said, yeah, the 73 year old woman who accused Trump of groping her 30 some years ago on an airplane is doing this because she's trying to jumpstart a movie career and date James Franco. Not very compelling. So that's another element I think is going to get play in the analysis of this debate overall. I think the Hillary Clinton campaign right now is focused on what color drapes for the White House. They have to be feeling very confident. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. Please post your comments on Facebook, on YouTube or any other place you're hearing or seeing the show. Thanks. Thanks for listening to speaking with T.J. walker.