5 Interesting Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Second Presidential Debate Moments
The second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump covered many controversial issues, including a recently released 2005 video showing Trump making lewd comments about women and Clinton's email scandal in which she mishandled classified documents about U.S. operations.
At the 90-minute town hall debate that took place Sunday evening at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, the two presidential hopefuls received questions from both the moderators and attendees who identified as undecided voters.
Below in no particular order are five things of interest that were discussed during the debate between Clinton and Trump.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
1. Prosecution for the email scandal
During the debate, both Trump and the moderators brought up the controversy surrounding Clinton's over 33,000 deleted emails and the conclusion that FBI Director James Comey reached that the former secretary of state was "extremely careless" in her handling of classified documents on unsecured devices.
Clinton responded by saying she was sorry for making the mistakes she made when improperly handling classified information on her unsecured personal email server.
"I'll repeat it because I want everyone to hear it. That was a mistake, to take responsibility for using a personal email account. Obviously, if I were to do it over again, I would not," said Clinton.
"But I think it's also important to point out where there are some misleading accusations from critics and others. After a year-long investigation, there is no evidence that anyone hacked the server I was using. And there is no evidence that anyone can point to at all."
Trump, who attacked Clinton for the scandal, made a promise that if he is elected president he will prosecute his Democratic challenger and she will be in jail.
"But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation," said Trump.
"There has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it. And we're going to have a special prosecutor."
2. Sexual harassment
Trump's "October Surprise" received attention early on in the debate, with the real estate mogul and reality TV star being questioned about remarks he made in 2005 in which he bragged about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women while talking with Billy Bush, then host of "Access Hollywood."
Trump reiterated his apologies for what he said, labeling it "locker room talk," adding that they were "just words," unlike Clinton's.
He contrasted his rhetoric with the alleged activities of former president Bill Clinton, and invited three women to the debate who have accused Hillary's husband of sexual assault and rape. Trump also invited a woman who was a child rape victim at age 12 whom Hillary had defamed as being a fantasist and not a victim even though she was in a coma due to internal and external injuries suffered at the hands of a rapist that Hillary had defended.
"If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse — mine are words, and his was action. His was far worse — what he's done to women, there's never been anyone in the history of politics in this nation who has been so abusive to women," said Trump.
"So you could say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women. Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously."
Clinton argued that Trump's 2005 comments were not merely an isolated incident, but rather reflected a trend of insults Trump has made against women and minorities.
"We have seen him insult women. We've seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to 10," said Clinton.
"We've seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter. We saw him after the first debate spend nearly a week denigrating a former Miss Universe in the harshest, most personal terms."
3. Abortion, gay marriage, and the Supreme Court
Near the end of the debate, one of the audience members asked the candidates their plans on who to nominate to the United States Supreme Court.
Clinton vowed to appoint justices who would overturn the Citizens United decision while supporting past decisions in favor of abortion access and gay marriage.
"I want a Supreme Court that will stick with Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose, and I want a Supreme Court that will stick with marriage equality," said Clinton.
"Now Donald has put forth the names of some people that he would consider, and among the ones that he has suggested are people who would reverse Roe v. Wade and reverse marriage equality. I think that would be a terrible mistake and would take us backwards."
For his part, Trump avoided specific comment on abortion and gay marriage, instead noting that his judicial appointees will "respect the Constitution" and "also the Second Amendment."
"They'll respect the Second Amendment and what it stands for and what it represents. So important to me," said Trump.
"I am looking to appoint judges very much in the mold of Justice Scalia. I'm looking for judges, and I've actually picked 20 of them, so that people would see, highly respected, highly thought of and actually very beautifully reviewed by just about everybody."
