WASHINGTON — Donald Trump said late Monday night that he believed he was given a defective microphone at the debate, asking at one point if, perhaps, it was on purpose.
‘‘They gave me a defective mic. Did you notice that? My mic was defective within the room,’’ Trump said after the debate while speaking with reporters. ‘‘I wonder, was that on purpose? Was that on purpose? But I had a mic that didn’t work properly.’’
There was no clear problem with his microphone during the debate.
Trump has often joked on the campaign trail about faulty microphones, saying on occasion that he may refuse to pay for the audio rental. He repeated that joke last week during a campaign event in Kenansville, N.C.
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‘‘The mic just shot. That was a weird sound, wasn’t it? So I wouldn’t pay the mic guy and they’ll say, isn’t that terrible. He didn’t pay his bills,’’ Trump said at the time. ‘‘When people don’t do a good job for me I don’t pay them. It’s one of those things.’’
Overall, however, he said he felt he did well against his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
‘‘I thought it was a very fair debate,’’ Trump told reporters. ‘‘The polls are all saying we won.’’