At Nearly 84 Million Viewers, Debate May be the Most-Watched Ever New York Times

Preliminary figures from 12 national networks tally up to an average viewership of 83.8 million, making last night's Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debate as the most watched since televised debates began in 1960. Previously, the 1980 debate between incumbent President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan held the record at 80 million viewers. Nielsen has issued its estimate at 81.4 million. The tally also doesn't include the many online views of the debate, with YouTube reporting 2.5 million views. PBS viewership isn't included in these totals.

Related: The first debate featured an unprepared man repeatedly shouting over a highly prepared woman VOX

Even Fox News Knows Clinton Thumped Trump in the First Debate Observer

In a Debate-Long Power Move, Clinton Only Called Trump 'Donald' Slate

57% of viewers say Clinton won the first debate YouGov.com

YouGov's latest research shows that most people who watched last night's debate say that Hillary Clinton won it. 57% of Americans who watched the debate say that she won the debate, while 30% say that Donald Trump won the debate. 13% of viewers aren't sure who, exactly, came out on top.

83% of Democrats called it for Clinton, and 68% of Republicans said that Trump won. Among independents, however, sentiment clearly favors Hillary. 54% of independents who watched the debate say that Clinton won, compared to 28% who say that Trump won.

Clinton Is Right About Trump's 'Very Small' $14 Million Loan Politico

Until last night, I bought the story that Trump's father had 'only' lent him $1 million to get started in business. When Hillary said $14 million last night, my ears perked up. She is correct as new details emerged recently about the real size of Trump's father's cash infusion -- what Trump calls a 'very small loan'.

Millions of People Checked Out Clinton's Debate Fact-Check Site Wired

During last night’s presidential debate,candidate Clinton took fact-checking into her own hands. “I hope the fact-checkers are turning up the volume and really working hard,” she said early on in the debate. “Please, fact-checkers, get to work,” she followed up later. Just in case, the always-prepared Hillary launched her own backup plan, just in case the professional journalists were so overwhelmed with Trump lies that they deluge left them buried.

The Clinton campaign turned HillaryClinton.com into a live fact-check machine, called Literally Trump. During the debate, Clinton told viewers to go to the site “to see in real-time what the facts are,” and according to Clinton spokesperson Tyrone Gayle, it was a superb success. How entrepreneurial of Clinton to come up with this idea in her own superbly calculating mind.

“In debate prep, Hillary made it clear that while she would be calling Trump out for his lies, she wanted a place where viewers could be empowered to look it up themselves, not have to wait for reporters or any other delivery mechanism,” Gayle said. “Hillary suggested making Trump’s past statements available on the website for anyone to read for themselves.”

Nearly two million people visited Clinton’s website within an hour after she mentioned it, says Wired That’s 10 times as many visits as the campaign has ever attracted in an hour. By this evening, the Literally Trump factoids had been shared 18,000 times on social media.

Donald Trump Racist

Everyone Knows Donald Trump Is Racist -- Except for Donald Trump by Goldie Taylor The Daily Beast

Donald Trump may be one of the last people in America who doesn’t know that he is a bigot. After weeks of alleged “outreach” to black and Muslimcommunities, the GOP nominee Monday night littered the debate stage with racial stereotypes, doubling down on his virulent brand of prejudice as more than 80 million Americans watched.

His answers betrayed the heart of a man far too consumed with himself to see other people as they are. Perhaps more devastating, he cannot seem to see himself. And there is nothing any campaign manager, senior adviser, or media trainer can do to help. Trump is incapable of a pivot because he is unable to recognize his own frailties.

A sneering, angry Trump protested that it was he and he alone who understood the plight of black people, writ large, and insisted he should be given some credit for visiting African American churches (for the first time) in recent weeks. His answer to nearly every dilemma seemed to be: call the police.

Ranting Bully Donald Trump Came Unglued in First Presidential Debate by Jonathan Chait NY Magazine

"Before the first presidential debate, a conventional wisdom had formed that Donald Trump merely needed to appear “presidential,” which the campaign media had defined as “non-sociopathic.” He failed to clear that bar.

Hillary Clinton Headlines September 27, 2016

Consensus: Clinton wins debate -- but Trump is far from finished The Guardian

The Morning After the Debate. Donald Trump Goes on the Attack New York Times

Hillary Clinton Goes the Distance as Donald Trump Punches Himself Out The Daily Beast

How Hillary Clinton found her stride on gender CNN

Trump's Abdication of Personal Responsibility The Atlantic

Does Donald Trump Pay Taxes? Here's What We Know New York Times

Former Ms. Universe Urges Immigrants To Join Her In Becoming Citizens To Vote Against Donald Trump ThinkProgress

Gennifer Flowers, Donald Trump and the Making of the Sex-Scandal Culture New York Times

These are the moments Clinton won over voters inclined to vote for Trump VOX

Matt Lauer Fields Storm of Criticism Over Clinton-Trump Forum New York Times

I went to bed last night having really thrown in the towel on American media and their double standard for how they treat Hillary Clinton. The utter cake walk that Matt Laurer gave Donald Trump -- letting him deny statements easily provable about his support for the Iraq war left me speechless, chagrined and understanding just how strong the boys club is in America. Trump could say anything that he wanted, and Laurer just kissed his butt like a devoted lap dog. At least this morning, there is some solace in reading that there has been an eruption against Laurer -- although it should be noted that Laurer is also criticized by Republicans who believe he wasn't tough enough on Hillary. ~ Anne

Chelsea Clinton accuses Trump of 'sad, misogynistic, sexist rhetoric' Politico

"In her first public campaign event since the Democratic National Convention, Chelsea Clinton did not mince words when asked about the Republican nominee's verbal attacks on her mother.

In response to Trump's assertion that Hillary Clinton does not have a "presidential look," Chelsea Clinton said she hoped “that everyone can see that as the sad, misogynistic, sexist rhetoric that I hoped we had moved beyond in the 21st century, certainly in 2016.”

Trump camp tries to clarify his 'I love war' comment Politico

The 30-second ad out Tuesday, titled "I Love War," features Trump uttering the phrase, "I love war, in a certain way," at a rally last November, while featuring snippets of him remarking that he "knows more about ISIS than the generals do" and calling "nuclear, the power, the devastation ... very important to me."

"I love war, putting nuclear weapons on the table. The Clinton camp says that's irresponsible," ABC's George Stephanopoulos remarked to Kellyanne Conway at the start of their interview on "Good Morning America."

Conway responded that what is actually "irresponsible" is "taking little, cherry-picking little snippets of what he said and not giving the full context of the sentence let alone the speech."

Related: Why ISIS Supports Donald Trump TIME

Soledad O'Brien calls out CNN for 'normalizing' white supremacy with Trump reporting The Grio

“If you look at Hillary Clinton’s speech where she basically pointed out that what Donald Trump has done — actually quite well — has normalized white supremacy,” O’Brien -- who used to work at CNN -- told host Brian Stelter on Sunday. “I think she made a very good argument, almost like a lawyer. Here are ways in which he has actually worked to normalize conversations that many people find hateful.

“I’ve seen on-air, white supremacists being interviewed because they are Trump delegates,” O'Brien continued. “And they do a five-minute segment, the first minute or so talking about what they believe as white supremacists. So you have normalized that.

Dallas News Editorial Board: We Recommend Hillary Clinton for President Dallas Morning News

"There is only one serious candidate on the presidential ballot in November. We recommend Hillary Clinton.

We don't come to this decision easily. This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation's highest office since before World War II — if you're counting, that's more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections. The party's over-reliance on government and regulation to remedy the country's ills is at odds with our belief in private-sector ingenuity and innovation. Our values are more about individual liberty, free markets and a strong national defense.

We've been critical of Clinton's handling of certain issues in the past. But unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has experience in actual governance, a record of service and a willingness to delve into real policy."