The second meeting between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the debate stage took place at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the stakes could not have been higher for each candidate. The debate was moderated by a combination of Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz. Here is the complete debate video.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Second Presidential Debate from Washington University in St. Lous
Candidates: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
Moderator: Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and Co-Anchor of “This Week,” ABC
Moderator: Anderson Cooper, Anchor, CNN
Transcript: Washington Post
Full Video:
Here’s a short report on the evening from the Washington Post:
Sunday night’s presidential debate was unusually dark and bitter, with the two candidates taking steps unheard-of in the genteel tradition of Presidential debates, with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump refering to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as “the devil,’ and promised that – if elected – he would order the Justice Department to investigate her. Clinton said at one point that Trump lives “in an alternate reality.”
The first half-hour of the debate was dominated not by questions from the undecided voters in the audience, but by interruptions and accusations by Trump himself. At one point, Trump referred to the endorsement by Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) of Clinton as a deal with “the devil.”
The debate opened with a question as to whether the campaigns were setting a good example for the nation’s youth, but it quickly turned to discussion about a recent revelation of a damaging video for Trump.
The first 30 to 40 minutes of this debate were quite jaw-dropping. I say this as someone who has intently and closely watched presidential debates dating back to the 2000 election. Donald Trump actually threatened to put Hillary Clinton in jail for the scandal over her handling of classified emails. I think Trump handled the opening question about his 2005 “hot mic” comments the best he could. Which is to say, there is really no good way to answer it, but clearly he worked on changing the subject and he was able to do that several times and not get bogged down like he did during the first debate. Hillary spent most of the time on defense, which is not a place she is comfortable. On several occasions she chose not to rebut what Trump said, but merely stated that he was lying again and voters should go check it out for themselves.
The next 48 hours of this campaign will be something to watch. As GOP leaders reconsider their support for Trump, did this debate do anything to change that?
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