A presidential debate that started out relatively restrained and issue-focused ended up with the candidates assailing one another’s character and moral values Wednesday.
Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a criminal. Clinton said Trump is “unfit and he proves it every time he talks.”
Trump’s last stand
As polls show Clinton widening her lead over Trump nationally and in many swing states, the GOP candidate has become increasingly aggressive, unpredictable and outlandish in his remarks. Over just the last week, he suggested Clinton was taking performance-enhancing drugs and said the election is being rigged against him.
Trump — as he has in the past on the advice of his advisers — began Wednesday’s debate trying to project a more subdued persona. He was the candidate many in the GOP always hoped he could be, aggressive but issue-focused, spouting standard conservative views on everything from the U.S. Supreme Court to guns and abortion, hammering away on issues that he’s most comfortable with, such as trade and immigration. It was a far cry from the so-called “scorched earth” campaign he has been running, and seemed like a sign that he knows he is in trouble and still believed he could turn things around with a more presidential performance.
But as the night wore on, he lashed out more, interrupting Clinton repeatedly to call her a liar and worse.
Under his skin
Clinton has proven adept at provoking Trump and getting him to respond to her attacks instead of staying on message. Trump refused to take the bait for the first 30 minutes. When Clinton went after him on immigration, saying he used undocumented labor to build Trump Tower in Manhattan, he ignored that comment and put Clinton on the defensive regarding leaked excerpts from a speech she gave to a Brazilian bank where she said, “My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders.”
But when Clinton turned the remarks back on Trump, saying the leaked speech excerpts may have come from Russian hackers and that Trump has been cozy with Russian president Vladamir Putin, he couldn’t help responding. “I don’t know Putin,” he said. “This is not my best friend.”
Shortly afterward, after Clinton accused Trump of being “cavalier” in talking about the use of nuclear weapons and allowing more countries to obtain them, he resorted to calling her “a liar” and added “this is just another lie.” Trump seemed to lash out more as the debate wore on, frequently interrupting Clinton and lacing in strong critiques about the Clinton Foundation with the type of wilder remarks that make many Republicans nervous.
Ugly and personal
As the night wore on, Trump declared that Clinton is “guilty of a very, very serious crime” and “should not be allowed to run.” He called her campaign “sleazy” and “crooked” said she is “such a nasty woman.”
Clinton avoided name calling but was relentless in her criticism of Trump, saying his vision for the country was “very dark and in many ways dangerous.” The exchanges illustrated how personal and vitriolic the campaign has become in the closing weeks. The candidates each are making their closing arguments about morality, saying that the other essentially is a bad, immoral person who does not represent American values.
“That is not who America is and I hope that as we move in the last weeks of the campaign, more and more people understand what’s really at stake in this election,” Clinton said at one point about Trump’s remarks regarding Hispanics, women and other groups. Trump’s final statement of the night, which closed the debate, was an attack on Clinton.
There’s little reason to believe the final two weeks of the campaign won’t get even uglier.
Undermining the system
Trump’s insistence over the last week that the election is being stolen and the results won’t be valid strikes many leaders on both sides of the aisle as a reckless and dangerous effort to discredit the very foundation of American democracy. It has received widespread condemnation on the right and left, yet Trump doubled down Wednesday.
When asked if he would accept the election results if he loses, he said “I will look at it at the time.” Pressed by the moderator, who noted democracy depends on a peaceful transition of power after elections, Trump said: “I will tell you at the time; I’ll keep you in suspense.”
Clinton pounced. “That’s horrifying,” she said. “Every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is is rigged against him.” Trump’s claims about a rigged system should cause GOP leaders serious heartburn and are not likely to win him any votes.
‘It was all fiction’
Trump’s campaign has been sinking under the weight of various controversies, the latest one being a parade of women who have come forward to say he sexually harassed or assaulted them. The moderator wondered aloud how it could be that so many women from different backgrounds and circumstances would come forward to make such claims.
Trump’s answer: Clinton is behind it. “All fictionalized,” he said. “Probably and possibly started by her and her very sleazy campaign.” Trump continued to deny the accusations, saying they have been “largely debunked.”
Clinton said Trump’s counterattacks against the women are emblematic of a candidate who never apologizes or takes responsibility. “It’s not one thing,” she said. “This is a pattern, a pattern of divisiveness.”
Trump is performing terribly in the polls with women and badly needs to find a way to address this issue in a convincing manner in order to have any hope of salvaging his campaign.