When Trump said that not paying taxes ‘makes me smart,’ undecided voters in N.C. gasped
By Mary Jordan Politics September 27 at 1:34 PM
washingtonpost.com
CARY, N.C. — Donald Trump so captured Ron Townley’s attention as “an outsider ready to tear down the system,” just the one who might break the Washington logjam, the doer to build new airports and highways, that he was considering voting for him.But Trump’s response Monday night when Hillary Clinton accused him of not paying a cent of federal tax left Townley appalled.
“That makes me smart,” Trump said, unapologetic and smiling, during the presidential debate.
That comment caused a gasp in the hotel conference room where Townley and a half-dozen other undecided voters in this battleground state were watching the debate.
“That’s offensive. I pay taxes,” said Townley, 52, a program director for a local council of governments.
“Another person would be in jail for that,” agreed Jamilla Hawkins, 33, who was sitting beside him in the Crescent conference room of the Embassy Suites in this city of 150,000 near Raleigh.
Hawkins’s mother had chided her to get off the fence and support Clinton, but the 33-year-old felt no connection at all to the Democratic nominee. “I just wasn’t sold on her. A lot of my friends were on the Bernie Sanders train,” she said.
But Hawkins said the debate made her appreciate Clinton more. She said she now leans to voting for her — a feeling shared by most of the undecided voters gathered here for an informal focus group.
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