Clinton defends emails on drone program

"I took responsibility for my decision", she said of her vote for the Iraq war. "They have been reduced to a point where it's embarrassing for our country".

The real estate tycoon made that same rhetorical pivot repeatedly made throughout his 30-minute question-and-answer session with Lauer, along with an audience of military personnel and veterans.

While many members of the USA tech community have questioned Trump's tech policy plans, Clinton has released a detailed tech policy agenda.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, again praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for being a strong leader and said Putin is more worthy of praise than President Barack Obama. She has won much more support from Army and Marine Corps generals than Trump.

Further, in the Republican nominee's mind, Putin's leadership exceeds that of President Obama's. Even before Wednesday's forum, which was watched by 14.7 million people, the role of moderators as fact-checkers was being talked about after Fox News' Chris Wallace, who will be in charge of the third presidential debate on October 19, said in an interview that "I don't believe my job is to be a truth squad". You've said it's a mistake. He said he would make the government "leaner", in part by using attrition to shrink the workforce, and that he'd bring in money by asking countries like Germany, Japan and Saudi Arabia to pay more for the security the USA provides them. She also fleshed out several national security priorities if she is elected, including trying to take out the leader of the Islamic State and vowing to defeat the extremist group without putting us troops on the ground in Iraq or Syria. "We are going to defeat ISIS without committing American ground troops".

Where Clinton was incisive about how she'd act going forward, she struggled to defend her past decisionmaking.

Clinton then turned to her claim that she never handled any information on her private email account that was marked classified - an assertion FBI Director James Comey has said is untrue. "But every part of our government had to deal with questions, secretary of state's office was first and foremost, so there are ways of talking about the drone program". It didn't really clarify the issue.

"The word judgment has been used a lot around you, Secretary Clinton, over the a year ago and a half, and in particular concerning the use of your personal email and server to communicate while you were secretary of state".

Clinton struck a similar tone when discussing her support for the Iraq war, although not without pointing out that Trump also backed the invasion but has refused to acknowledge his support. While conceding she regrets voting for the war, Clinton seized on the issue to lay out "the totality" of her record. "But that's one of the weakest, least incisive performances I've seen from a presidential forum moderator", Will Saletan, a writer at Slate.

However, in a follow up question, Trump said he has full faith in the military.

Asked by Lauer to explain this comment, Trump said, "It is a correct tweet".

"One hundred percent", Trump replied, quickly turning back to Clinton. "We don't send our fearless men and women around the world to steal oil. Absolutely. Now we have to vet very carefully, everybody would agree with that".