Donald Trump delivered no rebuttals at the first presidential debate Monday night, as Hillary Clinton used the entire 90 minutes of air time to explain in great detail how to screen-print fabrics.
Responding to a question about the middle class, Mrs. Clinton recounted an endearing story about her father. “My father was a small businessman,” she said. “He worked really hard. He printed drapery fabrics and went down with a silk screen and dumped the paint in and kept going.”
Mistaking the crowd’s silence for confusion, Clinton continued. “Let me be more specific. I want you all to really understand what my dad went through. First, you need your supplies. You have a screen and a frame. You have photo emulsion. You have a light bulb – a powerful one – 250 watts. But these days you should try for a compact fluorescent one because of global warming, a topic I’ll return to within the hour. Latex gloves. A dark room. A squeegee. Your ink. And some sort of table.” Clinton then paused for a moment and laughed, “Oh, and, of course, the fabric. You need fabric to make a drapery.”
“Make sure you spread an even layer of the emulsion mixture over the screen. You should use the squeegee for that. Be sure to apply even pressure,” Clinton cautioned, pulling out a green-liquid-covered screen and rubber squeegee from under the podium to demonstrate. “I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty here.”
Clinton proceeded to enumerate the entire screen-printing process, from preparation to cleanup, while Trump, hinting at screen-printing experience previously unbeknownst to the public, periodically interjected, “Wrong.”
“And that is what my father did, all day, every day,” Clinton concluded. “Next question?”
—L. Kingsley
