Image by Getty Images

It was a night of huffing and puffing, snorting and smarting, hectoring and interrupting for Donald Trump at the first presidential debate at Hofstra University. The media consensus — even the right-leaning Fox News — held that Hillary Clinton won. Jewish conservatives, many of them Never-Trumpers, signaled their agreement in a series of derisive tweets. Here’s a selection of them.

Ben Shapiro, the editor of The Daily Wire and no fan of Trump, was surprised to see the candidate’s relatively strong performance at the starting bell:

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Then he chronicled Trump’s deterioration:

A few couldn’t hide their disgust.

“I have a much better temperament than she has.” Trump’s only laugh line of the night. Inadvertent of course. #Debates2016

— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) September 27, 2016

can’t believe he is defending birtherism, Holt fact checked on continuing to raise it

— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) September 27, 2016

This is why Trump is doing so badly with women. His own words are the most powerful condemnations of his candidacy.

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) September 27, 2016

John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary Magazine, brought the snark, mocking Trump’s statements on the Islamic state, health accusations, and persistent sniffles.

She was fighting The Mighty Isis in 1974

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) September 27, 2016

Maybe she slipped him the pneumonia with the handshake.

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) September 27, 2016

_Contact

Hillary should open the next debate by asking Donald if he’s over the sniffles.

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) September 27, 2016

Bill Kristol, head of The Weekly Standard and no fan of Hillary Clinton either, rose above his dislike to call it like he saw it.

Irony: Hillary, the alleged policy wonk, isn’t particularly good at explaining policies. But she’s a pretty tough fighter.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 27, 2016

And where does that leave us?

_Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon__

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount