Is this really it, the last debate of the seemingly endless 2016 presidential election cycle? Indeed it is: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are facing off one last time, and we’re here for the show. As always, we’ll be keeping track of their most memorable formulations, most baffling proposals, and most awkward assertions.
This post will be updated throughout the debate.
Clinton on what she wants from a Supreme Court justice:
I feel strongly that the Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American people. Not on the side of the powerful corporations and the wealthy. For me, that means that we need a supreme court that will stand up on behalf of women’s rights, on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community, that will stand up and say no to Citizens United, a decision that has undermined the election system in our country because of the way it permits dark, unaccountable money to come into our electoral system.
Trump on what Clinton wants from a Supreme Court justice:
I believe, if my opponent should win this race—which I truly don’t think will happen—we will have a Second Amendment which will be a very, very small replica of what it is right now.
Clinton on the conversation around gun violence:
I understand that Donald has been strongly supported by the NRA, the gun lobby is on his side. They’re running millions of dollars of ads against me, and I regret that. What I would like to see is for people to come together and say, Of course we’re going to protect and defend the second amendment. But we’re going to do it in a way that tries to save some of these 33,000 lives that we lose every year.
Clinton on women’s right to choose:
I will defend Roe V. Wade, and I will defend women’s rights to make their own health care decisions. We have come too far to have that turn back now. And indeed, [Trump] said women should be punished. There should be some form of punishment for women who obtain abortions. And I could not be more opposed to that kind of thinking.
Moderator Chris Wallace, correcting himself:
All right. Let’s move on to the subject of immigration. And there is almost no issue that separates the two of you more than immigration. Actually there are many issues.
Trump, strong opponent of dudes who are breaking bad:
One of my first acts will be to get all the drug lords, we have some bad, bad people in this country that have to go out. We’re going to get them out. We’re going to secure the border. And once the border is secured, at a later date, we’ll make determination as to the rest. We have some bad hombres and we’re going to get them out.
Clinton, calling out her opponent for choking like a dog:
When it comes to the wall that Donald talks about building. He went to Mexico. Had a meeting with the Mexican president. He didn’t even raise it. He choked. And then got into a Twitter war because the Mexican president said we’re not paying for that wall.
Trump, after Wallace brought up revelations from WikiLeaks:
Thank you.
Trump, on relations with Russia:
Now we can talk about Putin. I don’t know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good. He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president.
Clinton on why Putin “respects” Trump:
Well, that’s because he would rather have a puppet as president of the United States.
Trump on whether he’s Putin’s puppet:
No puppet. You’re the puppet.
Clinton, questioning Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Russian hacking:
He would rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us.
Trump, as Clinton prepares to quote him:
There is no quote. You won’t find a quote from me.
Clinton, following up on Trump’s explanation of his economic plans:
Let me translate that if I can, Chris.
Trump on Clinton’s promise to translate:
You can’t.
Trump, describing a rally he recently attended in New Jersey:
So I just left some high representatives of India. They’re growing at 8%.
Clinton on the status of American manufacturing:
Donald has bought Chinese steel and aluminum. 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 steel workers, not American steel workers.
Clinton, comparing her experience with Trump’s:
When I was in the situation room monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin laden to justice while he was on Celebrity Apprentice. I’ll let the American people make that decision.
Trump, comparing his experience with Clinton’s:
I built a massive company, a great company, some of the greatest assets anywhere in the world worth many, many billions of dollars .. If we could run our country the way I’ve run my company, we would have a country that would you would be so proud of you would even be proud of it.
Clinton on the way Trump speaks:
Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, and I don’t think there’s a woman anywhere that doesn’t know what that feels like. So we now know what Donald thinks and what he says and how he acts toward women. That’s who Donald is. I think it’s really up to all of us to demonstrate who we are and who our country is and to stand up and be very clear about what we expect from our next president.
Clinton on the Clinton Foundation:
I would be happy to compare what we do with the trump foundation which took money from other people and bought a six-foot portrait of Donald Trump. I mean, who does that?
Trump on whether he used money from his foundation to settle lawsuits:
No, we put up the American flag and that’s it. They put up the American flag.
Clinton, questioning Trump’s relationship to tax code:
What is really troubling is we learned in the last debate he hasn’t paid a penny in federal income tax. We were talking about immigrants a few minutes ago. Half of all undocumented immigrants pay federal income tax. We have undocumented immigrants in this country paying more federal income tax than a billionaire.
Trump on whether he’ll accept the results of the election:
I’ll look at it at the time. What I’ve seen is so bad.
Clinton on Trump’s reluctance to accept the results of the election:
Chris, let me respond to that because this is horrifying. Every time Donald thinks things aren’t going in his direction, he claims everything is rigged against him. The FBI conducted a yearlong investigation that my e-mails. They found nothing. He said it was rigged. He said the Republican primary us was against him. He claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.
Trump on the Emmys:
Should have gotten it.
Clinton told that Bernie Sanders thinks she has bad judgment:
You should ask Bernie Sanders who he is supporting. He said you are the most dangerous person to run for president in the modern history of America. I think he’s right.
Trump, told by Wallace that Aleppo has not “basically fallen”:
Have you seen it?
Trump, basically straight-up admitting that Clinton is going to win:
Wait until you see what happens in the coming years. Lots of luck, Hillary.
Trump, confusing foreign politics with a visit to the fabric store:
And during the cease-fire, Russia took over vast swatches of land and then they said we don’t want the cease-fire anymore.
Wallace, responding to Trump’s request to speak:
No, because we’re running out of time.
Clinton on who’s going to pay to make things better:
That’s part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy. My social security payroll contribution will go up as will Donald’s assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it.
Trump, summing up his attitude toward Clinton (and maybe women more generally):
Such a nasty woman.
