Five times Donald Trump completely lost it in the second debate
It wasn’t a game changer. Hillary Clinton went into the second debate, held at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, backed up by a video that has become the defining scandal of this presidential race. Somehow, she failed to convert her lead into a decisive victory, giving Donald Trump space to set out his agenda on Syria, on healthcare, and on the Supreme Court. Clinton was calm, poised and patient, refusing to let Trump rile her even as he lied and insulted her to her face, but her fight to maintain her composure prevented her from hitting back as hard as she could have. Trump, for his part, pulled no punches, turning each question into a direct attack on Clinton and blaming her and her husband for every problem faced by modern America.
That said, there were still multiple examples of pure Trumpery that would have destroyed any other candidate – and may yet prove to be Trump’s downfall. Here are five of the most extreme.
Trump pivots from the “grab ‘em by the pussy” video to ISIS
The first 20 minutes of the debate focussed on the 2005 tape of Trump laughing about making unwanted sexual advances on married women. Trump was asked if he understood that his comments amounted to bragging about sexual assault. His response was to focus on ISIS:
“You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads and frankly drowning people in steel cages… And they look and they see, can you imagine the people that are frankly doing so well against us with ISIS. And they look at our country and they see what’s going on. Yes, I’m embarrassed by it, I hate it, but it’s locker room talk and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS.”
It’s hard to work out, but essentially Trump appeared to be saying that his behaviour towards women didn’t matter because ISIS do far worse and there are more important things for America to worry about anyway. It was the first and most extreme example of pure deflection in the debate, and was probably Trump’s weakest moment overall.
Trump threatens to prosecute Hillary Clinton if elected president
The focus on the video had clearly affected Trump, who appeared to be struggling to concentrate as the debate progressed, pacing backwards and forwards on the stage like a schoolboy who’d been told to stay behind after class. When it got to questions over Clinton’s e-mails, Trump’s pressure-valve broke.
“I didn’t think I’d say this but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it, but if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because 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.”
It should go without saying that this is the first time a presidential candidate has threatened an opponent with prosecution on live TV. And he wasn’t finished. Just minutes later, while Clinton responded that it was good that someone with Trump’s temperament wasn’t in charge of the country, Trump interrupted with “Because you’d be in jail”.
For viewers who had hoped that the “Lock her up” chants at the Republican National Convention were an aberration, Trump’s threat was chilling, reminiscent of the various foreign dictators who have endorsed him.
Trump claims Captain Khan would have been alive if he had been president
Earlier in the debate, Clinton brought up all the people owed an apology by Trump, including the family of Captain Humayun Khan, a soldier killed in the Iraq War. Khan’s parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention, and were then subjected to weeks of attacks and insults from Trump. Tonight, Trump had the audacity to claim Khan would still be alive if he had been president in 2004 because he would not have gone to war in the first place, causing outrage among Muslims, the military, and anyone with a fact-checker who could easily note that Trump had initially supported the Iraq War.
Trump tries to blame Clinton for his tax avoidance
In the second greatest pivot of the evening, Trump responded to questions over whether he had used a business loss to avoid paying federal income tax for eighteen years into an attack on Clinton’s Senate record. He proudly admitted his tax avoidance, justifying it by saying Clinton’s friends did it too, then railed at her for not having done anything about the tax loophole when she was a senator. When Clinton responded that she had tried to do so, he interrupted her with “Why didn’t you?”. Her answer was one of the few clear rhetorical winners of the night: “Because I was a senator with a Republican president.”
Trump shamelessly denies tweeting that people should check out Alicia Machada’s sex tape
Moderator Anderson Cooper finally asked Trump about discipline, pointing out that he took to twitter at 3am last week to attack Miss Universe winner Alicia Machada and tell people to check out her sex tape. Trump replied “No it wasn’t ‘check out a sex tape’.” The debate was flooded with Trump’s lies and false statements, but this is the easiest one to debunk:
Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016
There were numerous other lowlights from Trump – proudly declaring “I know nothing about Russia”, publicly disagreeing with his running-mate Mike Pence on Syria, accusing Hillary of having “tremendous hate in her heart”. The debate ended on a fragile conciliatory note thanks to the final audience question which asked the candidate’s to name something they admired about each other (Clinton: how Trump’s children turned out; Trump: the fact that Clinton doesn’t quit). Clinton seemed to have achieved her objective of not conceding any ground, but despite his outbursts Trump failed to blow himself up as her campaign hoped.
All in the all, the debate was an emotionally exhausting rollercoaster that somehow failed to clarify or satisfy. But it did achieve one thing: after staying up until 3.40am to watch the future of the US, I have never had more faith in British politics.