Monday’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has become a laughing matter for the Democratic nominee.
At events across the country since Monday, Clinton has taken to mocking Trump’s debate performance, causing her supporters to laugh at the Republican nominee.
In Des Moines on Thursday, Clinton simply smiled and said, “Any of you see that debate on Monday night?” The audience at the outdoor rally in Iowa broke out into laughter.
Clinton continued, arguing that Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and Trump critic that Clinton invited to the debate, “really… unsettled my opponent.”
“Mark Cuban is a real billionaire that actually uses profit sharing,” Clinton said, a not-so-subtle joke that Trump isn’t as wealthy as he says.
On the road with Clinton the debate appears to be an inflection point in the election. While Trump has much of the momentum going into the contest, Clinton appears to be the one with the wind at her back coming out.
Any mention of the debate is now an applause line, routinely her biggest of the day.
The last time this happened for the Democratic nominee was in June when Clinton ripped into Trump’s ability to handle a crisis, mocking his as someone with “very thin skin” who doesn’t understand the “knowledge, stability and immense responsibility” that comes with being president.
After that speech, as Clinton campaigned through California during the state’s Democratic primary, any mention of San Diego was an applause line, to the point that Clinton began to anticipate the reaction.
“Isn’t this one of the strangest elections you have ever seen,” Clinton said in Durham, New Hampshire on Thursday. “I really sometimes don’t know what to make of it.”
The day after the debate, Clinton joked that Trump has given a lot of work to fact checkers with his performance on Monday.
“I am going to leave it to the fact checkers to go through all of Donald Trump’s claims,” Clinton said in Raleigh, North Carolina. “There was a lot of work for the fact checkers last night.”
Trump’s preparation, in particular, has drawn Clinton’s ire.
“He made it very clear that he didn’t prepare for that debate. At one point he was kind of digging me for spending time off the campaign trial to prepare,” Clinton said in North Carolina. “You know what? I did prepare. I’ll tell you something else I prepared for, I prepared to be president of the United States.”
On Thursday in Iowa, Clinton looked ahead.
“I have no idea what he’ll say the next time,” Clinton said. “But you know, I will spend some time preparing for it.”