Donald Trump on Tuesday gave Hillary Clinton’s presidential debate performance a “C+” and said he doesn’t like to grade himself but that he did better than his Democratic rival.
“I don’t like to grade myself, but I know I did better than Hillary and every poll has shown that I did better,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox and Friends.”
Mr. Trump was asked if Mrs. Clinton was the best partner he’s “sparred with.”
“I think Ted Cruz was tough. I think that Marco [Rubio] was actually very tough. He had a breakdown, little breakdown once,” he said. “But he was a good debater. Marco’s a very good debater. I thought those two were very tough.”
“And she’ll be tough. I think she’ll be tough,” Mr. Trump said. “I thought she was very bad in the first half when they were asking normal questions, and when they were asking unfair questions, she got better.”
He said he’d give moderator Lester Holt a “C” or a “C+.”
“I thought he was OK. I thought he was fine,” Mr. Trump said. “He gave me very unfair questions at the end, the last three, four questions, but you know, I’m not complaining about that. I thought he was OK.”
Overall, Mr. Trump said he thought the debate went “really well.”
“I thought it went really well. I mean, I had some hostile questions, but that was OK. I thought it went really well. It was the debate of debates,” he said.
“He didn’t ask her about the emails at all. He didn’t ask her about her scandals. He didn’t ask her about the Benghazi deal that she destroyed. He didn’t ask her about a lot of things that she should have been asked about. I mean, there’s no question about it. Didn’t ask about her foundation,” he said.
But Mr. Trump said he didn’t think Mr. Holt did a bad job.
“When you look at it, you watch the last four questions, he hit me on birther, he hit me on a housing deal from many years ago that I settled with no recourse and no guilt — he asked me about that; that’s a beauty to be asked. … 40-year-old lawsuit or older,” he said.
“I explained it, but when you explain that, it’s a no-win, too,” Mr. Trump said. “But they were leaving all of her little goodies out.”
“I was asked about my tax returns, which I’ve told about 500 times,” he said. “I think I really did well when we were asked normal questions. I think I did really well in answering those questions, but those questions are not answerable in a positive light.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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