Trump vs. Clinton: Final Debate

Trump and Clinton faced off in the third and final debate of this presidential debate. The election will be decided November 8.
Photo Courtesy of CNN.com

On Wednesday, October 19, the third and final Presidential Debate took place between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. 

    The debate was held at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. The format for the debate was the same as the first Presidential Debate; being divided into six time segments, each lasting fifteen minutes. The candidates were allowed two minutes to answer each question before they would also have a chance to respond to their opponent’s answer. Any available time would be used by the moderator for deeper discussion of the topic.

     The moderator of the debate was Chris Wallace,  news anchor for Fox News Sunday. The Presidential Debates have all been heated. Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, and the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, have been the two most disliked candidates in modern history. 

    In the debate, the candidates answered questions on six topics: the Supreme Court, immigration, the economy, fitness to be President, foreign hotspots, and debt and entitlements. The first topic was the Supreme Court where Clinton said she would stand up and protect the rights of women, the LGBT community, and Citizens United, while Trump said he would defend all of the amendments, especially the Second Amendment. Clinton responded to Trump’s answer, saying that there should be background checks before someone can own a gun. 

    Immigration was the second topic of the night, where Trump talked about building a wall and Clinton said that there are eleven million undocumented immigrants in the United States. “When it comes to the wall that Donald talks about building, he went to Mexico. He had a meeting with the Mexican president. Didn’t even raise it. He choked, and then got into a Twitter war because the Mexican president said, ‘we’re not paying for that wall’,” said Clinton. 

    The third topic of the night was  the state of the economy. In this segment of the debate, Clinton said she wanted to create opportunities for the middle class to grow and make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes. Trump wants to create new deals with other countries and cut taxes. He stated that Clinton’s plans for the economy would ruin the United States.

    The fourth topic of the debate was the candidates’ fitness to be President. There was further discussion on the tapes that were released where Trump is heard discussing kissing and touching women without consent. Clinton has commented on Trump’s behavior towards women throughout the campaign and in the past. Trump said the accusations had been debunked. “Nobody has more respect for women than I do,” Trump said in his response and went on to discuss Bill Clinton’s actions towards women in the past, but the question was not given a clear answer. Clinton’s emails were discussed as well, with Trump stating that she should have been arrested. 

    Other topics were foreign hotspots, and U.S. debt and entitlements. Both candidates said they want to protect the United States from ISIS, but they have different ways of doing it. In discussion of the national debt, Trump said he wanted to cut taxes and raise the percentage of the GDP. When asked about entitlements Clinton referred to her answer regarding the economy. Trump said we needed to repeal and replace Obamacare while Clinton defended Obamacare. 

    There were moments in the debate where both candidates argued over each other. During the debate Clinton pointed out that while she had been working in politics, Trump was hosting the reality show “The Apprentice.” Both candidates became sidetracked during the debate at times and made disparaging comments about their opponents which made it difficult to stay on topic. Trump accused Clinton of paying people to be violent at his rallies and start fights in the crowds, while Clinton mentioned that Trump believed everything was rigged when it didn’t go his way. 

    Both candidates accused each other of poor usage of money donated to their charities: the Clinton Foundation and the Trump Foundation. Clinton mentioned that Trump still had not released his personal income tax returns to the public and Trump said that her biggest donors use the same legal deductions he does to avoid paying taxes. 

    One of the most talked about moments during the debate was when both candidates were asked if they would accept the results of the election, regardless of whether they won or lost. “What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense, OK?” said Trump.

    The closing statements of the debate were presented by both candidates. Clinton said that she has been privileged to work in the government for years and stressed how, if she becomes President, she will stand up for families. Trump said he wants to make America great again and wants to bring back law and order. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said she believes the polls will tighten. 

    It was noted that both candidates decided against the original set up where they would have been sitting at a table with the moderator, but instead chose to stand.

    November 8 is Election Day and the polls will be open 6:30AM to 7:30PM, and early voting in West Virginia is October 26 to November 5.