Nearly 11 million peopled watched Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton answer questions about national security and the military Wednesday night.
The two presidential candidates — in their first joint event — went back to back at the Commander-in-Chief forum hosted by Matt Lauer in New York City. According to fast ratings from Nielsen, 10.8 million viewers tuned in.
The forum was the second most-watched show of the night, making it a close second behind “America’s Got Talent,” which had a 1.8 rating among adults 18-49.
It was a ratings bonanza for NBC. (RELATED: Matt Lauer Will Moderate The First Forum Between Donald Trump And Hillary Clinton)
During the forum, Lauer quizzed Clinton about her email use while she was secretary of state.
“As I have said repeatedly, it was a mistake to have a personal account,” Clinton said. “I would certainly not do it again. I make no excuses for it. It was something that should not have been done.”
“For all the viewers watching you tonight, I have a lot of experience dealing with classified material, starting when I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee going into the four years as secretary of state. Classified material has a header which says ‘top secret,’ ‘secret,’ ‘confidential.’ Nothing — and I will repeat this, and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice — none of the emails sent or received by me had such a header.”
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Donald Trump was asked about his earlier comment that he knows more about ISIS than the generals do.
“I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble,” Trump said.
“They have been reduced to a point where it’s embarrassing for our country. You have a force of 30,000 or so people. Nobody really knows. But probably 30,000 people. And I can just see the great — as an example — General George Patton spinning in his grave as ISIS we can’t beat. (RELATED: Here’s How Tonight’s Presidential Forum Between Trump And Clinton Will Work)
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