Clinton: While I was working on the raid that got bin Laden, Trump was hosting “Celebrity Apprentice”

Clinton’s best put-down?
Clinton’s best put-down?
Image: Reuters/Carlos Barria
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This presidential campaign has pitted one of the most experienced candidates of all time against one of the least experienced. And Donald Trump has consistently tried to brush off his weakness here by telling the world Hillary Clinton has “bad experience.”

He did so again tonight, acknowledging, ”The one thing you have over me is experience—but it’s bad experience because what you’ve done has turned out badly. For 30 years, you’ve been in a position to help.”

It’s something Clinton has not quite shut down perfectly until tonight, when in one of her best moments of the debate, she smoothly listed a selected (and, obviously, selective) timeline of their contrasting exploits over the years:

Clinton: You know, back in the 1970s, I worked for Children’s Defense Fund, and I was taking on discrimination against African-American kids in schools. He was getting sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination in his apartment buildings. In the 1980s, I was working to reform the schools in Arkansas. He was borrowing $14 million from his father to start his businesses. In the 1990s, I went to Beijing and I said women’s rights are human rights. He insulted a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, called her an eating machine.

Trump: Give me a break.

Clinton: And on the day when I was in the situation room, monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting The Celebrity Apprentice. So I’m happy to compare my 30 years of experience, what I’ve done for this country, trying to help in every way I could, especially kids and families get ahead and stay ahead, with your 30 years. And I’ll let the American people make that decision.

Her campaign has had great fun with a more detailed version of this game, putting together a “way back when” tool on its website that shows what exactly each candidate was doing year by year. Some highlights:

1995
1995
Image: Hillary Clinton campaign
1997
1997
Image: Hillary Clinton campaign
2002
2002
Image: Hillary Clinton campaign