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Letters

Clinton’s Choices When Trump Stalked Her at Debate

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the Oct. 10, 2016, presidential debate in St. Louis.Credit...Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Donald Trump Was a Creep. Too Bad Hillary Clinton Couldn’t Say That,” by Jill Filipovic (Sunday Review, Aug. 27): Hillary Clinton made the correct choice, to keep her cool and not confront Donald Trump over his stalking of her at the Oct. 10, 2016, debate, just as she remained calm while being grilled for 11 hours at a Benghazi hearing. It was the moderators’ job to discipline Mr. Trump. They were undoubtedly too intimidated to do so, just as his G.O.P. opponents were in the prior debates.

Mrs. Clinton showed that she was not intimidated, further proof that she was perfectly qualified to be president. If she had confronted him, she would have been criticized. The woman is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t.

The problem is that our society is basically sexist and misogynistic. Mrs. Clinton has always been a class act, never so much as since Nov. 8. She could have said “I told you so” every day since, but she has largely kept quiet.

JOAN MERRILL, BELLEVUE, WASH.

To the Editor:

I agree with everything Jill Filipovic says about the barriers that society has created that keep women from responding appropriately to men who seek to harass or intimidate them. Missing from Ms. Filipovic’s account, however, is the inconvenient fact that for decades Hillary Clinton responded to allegations of sexual assault against her husband by denying those charges on his behalf and by vilifying the alleged victims.

I don’t know whether it’s ironic or pathetic (maybe it’s both) that Mrs. Clinton helped strengthen the barrier she confronted in the debate with Donald Trump.

GEORGE C. THOMAS, WARREN, N.J.

To the Editor:

Like Jill Filipovic, I have been mulling over Hillary Clinton’s reflections in her forthcoming memoir on Donald Trump’s behavior during the Oct. 10, 2016, presidential debate. My response now, as it was back then, focuses on the one action that could prevent such behavior in political debates: a clear, definitive directive that candidates remain at their chair or lectern when it is not their turn to speak. Period. No moving around. No stalking. No intimidating.

Ms. Filipovic says that the moderators did not instruct Mr. Trump to physically back off, arguing, “It would have been uncomfortable, and they would have faced accusations of bias.” It is time for debate organizers to step up and accept responsibility for preventing a repeat of such behavior.

PAMELA ROTHSTEIN
FALMOUTH, MASS.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Clinton’s Choices as Trump Stalked Her at Debate. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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