The week leading up to the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was interrupted by terrorist attacks in New Jersey and New York that claimed no lives, but reminded voters that on Nov. 8 they will choose a commander in chief who will be entrusted with the increasingly elusive job of keeping Americans safe.

With less than seven weeks to go in the campaign, neither candidate used the occasion to soothe their countrymen’s fears, nor unite Americans. Instead, they sought to turn the scare to partisan advantage — while also inadvertently underscoring their own strengths and weaknesses.

“Just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in New York and nobody knows exactly what's going on,” Trump told supporters in Colorado as the situation was unfolding. In his now-familiar style, Trump used the occasion to heap praise on himself. “I should be a newscaster because I called it before the news.” The Republican nominee also used the bombing to repeat his calls for tightening US immigration standards.

“This is something that will happen, perhaps, more and more all over the country,” he said. “Because we’ve been weak. Our country’s been weak. We’re letting people in by the thousands and tens of thousands.”