Memorable lines from third presidential debate
LAS VEGAS - At times, the candidates going at it Wednesday in the third presidential debate of 2016 sounded like any other Democrat or Republican from the last 30 years.
LAS VEGAS - At times, the candidates going at it Wednesday in the third presidential debate of 2016 sounded like any other Democrat or Republican from the last 30 years.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump talked about the Supreme Court, the Second Amendment, abortion, immigration, jobs, and foreign policy - big, meaningful issues to which the two major U.S. political parties have taken different approaches.
Without a doubt, it was a more substantive debate than the first two episodes. But there were also pointed attacks and interruptions.
Here are some of the memorable moments:
"I will look at it." Trump refused to commit to accepting the results of the Nov. 8 election when asked point-blank by moderator Chris Wallace.
"I will look at it at the time," he said before claiming yet again (without proffering evidence) that massive voter fraud and a media "pile on" could throw the election to Clinton.
In the last two weeks, as he has dropped in the polls amid accusations that he sexually assaulted women, Trump has repeatedly said a "rigged system" was arrayed against him.
Clinton called these remarks "horrifying" and a violation of the American spirit. Trump, she said, has a long history of claiming that sinister forces were aligned against him, recalling that he complained when he did not receive an Emmy award for his television show The Apprentice, among other grievances.
"Should have gotten it," Trump said.
Who's a puppet? At one point, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin does not respect Clinton and has nothing nice to say about her. Sure, she said, because Trump is a "puppet" of the Russian strongman. "Not a puppet, not a puppet," Trump said, his voice rising. "You're the puppet."
Clinton accused Trump of benefiting from Russian government espionage, a reference to cyber attacks that American intelligence services believe were ordered from Moscow; the hacks unearthed thousands of embarrassing emails from her campaign that were disclosed by WikiLeaks.
"She has no idea whether it's Russia or China or anybody else," Trump said.
"He'd rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who have sworn to protect this country," Clinton said.
Chinese steel. Clinton had one of her most effective moments zinging Trump on one of his signature issues: free-trade deals costing American jobs.
"Donald has bought Chinese steel and aluminum," Clinton said. "In fact, the Trump hotel right here in Las Vegas was made with Chinese steel. So he goes around with crocodile tears about how terrible it is, but he has given jobs to Chinese steelworkers, not American steelworkers."
"Bad hombres." "We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out," Trump said, noting that four audience members he had invited to the debate had family members who had been killed by immigrants in the United States illegally.
And the Republican nominee confirmed that he still wanted to build the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the first time he had brought up the famous proposal in the three presidential debates.
Clinton mocked Trump's much-hyped recent meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in which the topic did not come up. "He choked, and then he had a Twitter war with the president of Mexico," Clinton said.
Trump and women. "No one respects women more than I do," Trump said in defending himself from allegations by a series of women that he had forced himself on them.
But later, he slammed Clinton as "nasty."
The context was Clinton's discussing her plan to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for Social Security, when she jabbed Trump for his tax avoidance.
"My Social Security payroll contribution will go up, as will Donald's - if he can't figure out how to get out of it," she said.
Trump interrupted to say, "Such a nasty woman."
215-854-2718@tomfitzgerald