Trump and Clinton tangle in nasty debate

A defiant Donald Trump dismissed his recently publicized remarks about women as “locker room talk” and instead attacked Bill and Hillary Clinton for the former president’s sexual misdeeds in a deeply personal debate that was anything but presidential.

“Mine are words, his are actions—Bill Clinton was abusive to women,” Trump said Sunday night. “Hillary Clinton attacked those same women. … I think it’s disgraceful, and I think she should be ashamed of herself.”

The second of two 2016 presidential debates took place in the wake of Friday’s Washington Post report on a video showing Trump making lewd remarks about women and bragging about sexual assault. The revelation led dozens of Republicans to disavow Trump and call for him to withdraw from the race.

Sunday night’s event at Washington University in St. Louis took on a surreal aura even before it started. Trump held a surprise news conference beforehand with Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, and Kathleen Willey, women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting them, and Kathy Shelton, who said Hillary Clinton helped exonerate a man who raped her at age 12.

When the town hall style–debate began, Clinton emerged with a wide smile, while Trump looked somber—the two candidates did not shake hands.

The first series of questions focused on Trump’s 2005 comments, for which he said he already apologized to his family and the nation. He quickly pivoted, initially using measured tones but growing more animated as the night went on, to what he called the real issues, such as the defeat of ISIS.

“He has said the video doesn’t represent who he is, but I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it’s exactly who he is,” Clinton said, citing his insults of a Muslim military family, a Hispanic judge, a disabled reporter, and others.

The debate moderators, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, had to quiet the crowd several times after outbursts. Both seemed to grow irritated with the candidates, and at one point Raddatz got into a back-and-forth with Trump, who complained he was interrupted more than Clinton.

Throughout the debate, Trump showed much more interest in launching personal attacks on Clinton than he did in debating the issues. His long, meandering answers regularly veered far off topic.

On a question about taxes, Trump pivoted to the war in Syria. Later, when Raddatz asked about Syria, Trump talked about the situation but didn’t offer a specific strategy. Raddatz pressed him, noting running mate Mike Pence said Russian provocation in the region should be met with American strength.

“He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree,” Trump said curtly, before rushing on to make other points.

The split with his running mate was not the only news to come out of the debate. Trump confirmed a New York Times report indicating he used a $916 million loss in 1995 to avoid paying personal income tax for almost two decades.

Trump also said, if elected, he would name a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email practices.

“It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” Clinton said.

“Because you’d be in jail,” Trump retorted, eliciting stifled hoots from the crowd.

For her part, Clinton called for arming the Kurds in the fight against ISIS and said she would go after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State.

Clinton also acknowledged problems with Obamacare, including premiums that are too high, and vowed to “fix it.” She offered a fairly detailed description of what she would look for in a Supreme Court nominee—“justices who understand the way the world really works”—but never mentioned the Constitution.

Trump, when asked about nominees to the high court and whether he’d choose justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade and the Obergefell v. Hodges, he did mention the Constitution but did not address the issues of abortion or same-sex marriage.

For the first time, Clinton commented on a new WikiLeaks release showing excerpts of her paid speeches to elite Wall Street firms—remarks that are at odds with some of her public positions. When Raddatz asked Clinton if it is acceptable for politicians to be “two-faced,” Clinton said she was referring in the speech to the way Abraham Lincoln used different arguments to rally votes for the 13th Amendment.

“She lied, and now she’s blaming the lie on the late, great Abraham Lincoln,” Trump quipped.

Trump’s performance was aimed directly at his base supporters and may have succeeded in quelling some calls for him to quit the race, but it likely did little to gain him new voters. Rumors swirled about a new round of defections coming Monday.

Many pundits expressed disbelief at the tone and substance of the debate. Some called it unprecedented in American history.

“How have we come to this?” asked longtime CBS journalist Bob Schieffer. “America can do better than what we have seen here tonight.”