United States presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump faced off at the final debate ahead of the November 8 polls. The debate held on Wednesday night (Thursday morning IST) in Las Vegas was moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.
Both candidates jumped right in, as Wallace began with questions about gun control and abortion rights. While the Trump campaign has accused Clinton of wanting to repeal the second amendment, she countered it and said she supported it. On abortion, Republican candidate Trump earlier this year had said women who have abortions should be punished, and that they should be banned. After being criticised, he modified his stance to say he would punish those providing the abortions and not the person having one. On Thursday morning, Trump got graphic, describing foetuses being taken out of wombs, which Democratic candidate Clinton called “scare language”.
Wallace moved on to a major topic - immigration. Trump said Clinton supports full amnesty. The Democratic presidential candidate however, only supports the introduction of immigration reform that provides a pathway to full citizenship. Trump has been vocally anti-immigration, asking for a wall to be built between Mexico and the US, which he claimed Mexico will pay for. At the debate, Clinton took a jibe at Trump for “choking” when he went to Mexico but failed to bring up ‘the wall’ with the president of Mexico. He did not have a response to that.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has become a point of argument between the two candidates too. Clinton said a pressing issue from recently leaked emails by Wikileaks was Russia engaging in “espionage against Americans”, and pointed out that Trump has refused to denounce him. She said Putin would prefer a puppet as president. Trump’s response was, “You’re the puppet”. He also said, “She doesn't like Putin because Putin has outsmarted her at every step of the way.”
Trump has recently been mired in allegations of sexual assault, and been criticised after a tape of him boasting about groping women was leaked. Clinton brought up the allegations and said the tapes showed who Trump really was, to which Trump denied knowing the women who had accused him of harassment. “I think they either wanted fame or their campaign did it... It was all fiction and lies. I didn’t even apologise to my wife, who’s sitting right here, because I didn’t do anything,” he said. Clinton also pounced on him for reports that said he objectified women and in some cases implied some were not attractive. “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.” She added that he never "apologises or says he’s sorry for anything".
The two went on to spar about Trump Foundation’s alleged corruption, the Middle East, and refugee policy. Trump accused Clinton of trying to destabilise the Middle East, to which Clinton said Trump had also expressed support for the invasion.
In her closing statement, Clinton said she “will stand up for families against powerful interests. I will do everything to make sure you have jobs”. Trump said, he would make America “great again”, and that he “will do more for African Americans and Latinos.” He concluded, “We cannot take four more years of Barack Obama.”
According to WIRED, Trump interrupted Clinton a total of 12 times in this debate, and moderator Wallace 27 times. Clinton interrupted Wallace 9 times and Trump 4 times. Trump has also not committed to respecting the results of the November 8 election if he loses.
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