Trump, Clinton, and the final presidential debate

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Photo courtesy of the BBC

Democratic Party Nominee Hillary Clinton (left) and Republican Party Nominee Donald Trump (right)

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump participated in the final presidential debate on Thurs., Oct. 20, discussing the Supreme Court, immigration, the military, and nuclear weapons. The policy-focused debate, moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News, was a sharp deviation from the first two debates, which were marked by much more personal attacks and name-calling.

On the topic of the Supreme Court, the two candidates had major disagreements about abortion and gun control. Trump said that he will appoint justices who will uphold the Second Amendment, which he says “is under absolute siege,” by Clinton, who supposedly wants to significantly weaken the Second Amendment. Clinton rebuttled that she “supports the Second Amendment,” and that the reforms she wants “are not in any way conflicting with the Second Amendment.” They also discussed abortion, with Trump saying he would appoint pro-life justices, and Clinton saying she wants to protect the right to an abortion.

On immigration, Trump expressed that securing the border is extremely important to him, saying that “we have no country if we have no border.” He also touted the endorsement of the Border Patrol Agents to give himself more credibility. He added an emotional element by referencing mothers “whose children have been killed, brutally killed, by people that came into the country illegally.” Hillary Clinton also evoked sympathy, but this time for undocumented immigrants, describing a “young girl who is very worried that her parents might be deported,” and saying that she doesn’t “want to rip up families.” Clinton attacked Trump’s plan, saying “that is an idea that is not in keeping with who we are as a nation.”

While discussing immigration, the candidates got significantly side-tracked, with Clinton deflecting Trump’s attack about her statements to a Brazilian bank saying, “My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders some time in the future, with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” She also pivoted to Trump’s alleged ties to Russia and discussing Russia’s meddling in US Politics. Trump denied there was evidence Russia was meddling, saying that “she has no idea whether it is Russia, China or anybody else.”

Throughout the debate, Trump very strongly attacked NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s husband. “The NAFTA deal signed by her husband is one of the worst deals ever made of any kind signed by anybody.” Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have promised not to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership if elected, but Trump is using this, as well as Clinton’s past comments on the TPP, to say that Clinton will flip-flop if elected. On the subject of the TPP, Clinton said “I’m against it now. I’ll be against it after the election. I’ll be against it when I’m president.”

On a more unprecedented and less policy-focused note, Chris Wallace questioned Trump about Trump’s recent comments alleging widespread election-rigging and voter fraud. When asked if he would accept the results of the election, Trump said he “will look at it at the time,” going on to claim that there are “millions of people that are registered to vote that shouldn’t be registered to vote.” Clinton used this as an opportunity to attack Trump, saying that “every time Donald thinks things aren’t going in his direction, he claims whatever it is, is rigged against him.”

The candidates made many claims throughout this debate. Are any of them true? Luckily, there are myriad online sources doing fact-checking, and you can find some of the facts here, here, and here.

Who do you think won the debate? Answer this survey to tell us, and we’ll publish the results at a later date.