Donald Trump denies sniffling during presidential debate, as debate ranked most viewed ever

US: The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a Tuesday rally in Melbourne, Florida, for the first time publicly, addressed Monday's night presidential debate at length. The New York billionaire claim he could have easily defeated the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton but was “holding back” during the debate because he “didn’t want to embarrass her” in front of her daughter Chelsea.

Trump who was talking to rowdy supporters in an airport hangar declared victory in the debate.

Trump said Clinton was “stuck in the past” during the debate and saying that she defended “the horrible status quo,” adding that “I was also holding back - I didn’t want to do anything to embarrass her” after previously saying he held back to avoid embarrassing her daughter, Chelsea, who was also in the debate audience.

 

Monday's debate was the most watched in the history of the US as more than 80 million viewers tuned in to see the White House hopeful go head-to-head for the first time this election.

According to reports by CNNMoney, Nielsen ratings revealed that 80.9 million people watched the clash live on 12 networks as millions of people around the world also watched online, with various live streams on YouTube attracting at least 2.5 million viewers.

 

According to a CNN/ORC Poll of voters who watched the debate, Hillary Clinton was judged the winner of Monday's debate by 62 per cent of voters, while 27 per cent said they thought Trump had the better night.
Punters who watched the event live also said Clinton was better than Trump at expressing her views and had a stronger understanding of policy issues.

Online polls conducted by various media organisations however judged Trump the winner of the debate.
A poll by the Drudge Report showed Trump had 81.5 per cent of the vote to Clinton’s 18.5 while others, including Time, CBS New York and the Washington Times, also saw Trump win the poll.