With quite a few celebrities people of note in the audience (A,B and C list)—Wayne Newton, Scott Baio, Ted Danson, Dr. Ben Carson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jesse Jackson, Cecile Richards, Mark Cuban—the third and final presidential debate at the UNLV had an air of a prize fight.
And why not? Is Sure, both “The Donald,” who said “disaster” 30 million times and “Hillary” dressed in all white like a black church mother stuck to their talking points, but for the first time, it felt like a real debate. Republican Candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton gave detailed answers on their views on everything from the Second Amendment and gun control to abortion to immigration and defense.
Yes, all the news reports today will be talking about how Trump said he may or may not accept the election results, but herewith this hack’s top 5 moments of the final Presidential debate.
1. Donald Trump just can’t NOT dog whistle.
So, very early into the debate, after moderator Chris Wallace asked a question about the Second Amendment, and gun laws, Trump brought up Chicago and its murder rate, saying, “Well let me just tell you before we go any further, in Chicago, which has the toughest gun laws in the United States, probably you could say by far, they have more gun violence than any other city. So we have the toughest laws, and you have tremendous gun violence.” Now this was very smart, because anyone with half a brain knows that all conservatives bring up the Chicago murder rate to deflect from institutional racism, police racism and as a put down of Black Lives Matter actions. We know that “Chicago” equals “violent-predatory-wild-as-hell-Blacks-who-need-law-and-order” in Trump-speak.
In answering the immigration question, Trump brought up the four people in the audience who lost a family member to an undocumented immigrant, at one point calling them “bad hombres” (code for illegal-job-taking-aliens-who-are-rapists-drug-dealers-and-thugs-making-America-not-so-great.”) It’s his nature.
2. Hillary got off some great zingers. Like drop the mic, moments.
With rejoinders like, “He choked” (when talking about Trump going to Mexico, meeting with the Mexican president and not once mentioning “the wall”); “We now know what he thinks, does and ACTS towards women. That’s who he is” (when talking about the sexual allegations of women against him) and “But we don’t know if that’s true because he’s never released his tax returns,” (when Trump said he gave money to charity), Hillary got that off.
But the absolute best moment of the night was when Trump said, the only thing that Clinton had on him was “experience.” Well why did he say that? Clinton was ready. Her quote: “
Bloop.I’m glad you brought up experience…On the day when I was in the Situation Room monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting ‘The Celebrity Apprentice.’”
3. Behold, the art of the pivot
Although debate moderator Wallace was adept at his job, the art of the pivot was in effect last night. Both candidates—when asked tough questions—definitely retreated to their talking points. When Clinton was asked about the leaked emails which revealed some embarrassing things about her paid speeches to Wall Street folks for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Clinton deftly deflected to talk about how her emails were hacked by the Russians and threw it back on Trump asking him to denounce Vladimir Putin. “That was a great pivot…,” said Trump. “How did we get on to Putin?”
But Trump himself knows a thing or two about dodging questions. He straight didn’t answer the question about the illegal Polish immigrants he used to build Trump Towers when Clinton brought it up.
She ain’t talk about those emails; he didn’t talk about those Polish workers. Draw.
4. Did Trump really call Clinton a “Nasty Woman”?
He kind of mumbled it under his breath so that many were left asking, “Did he really say that?” Of course, that final insult wasn’t the first time he interrupted Clinton last night, saying things like, “Wrong” and “Not true,” but this one took the cake. During the last few moments of the debate, after Clinton explained how her plan was to increase social security contributions, and then baited Trump by saying, “assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it,” Trump replied, “Such a nasty woman,” as she was still speaking. As my hubby quipped, I thought that’s how Donald Trump liked his women—nasty.
5. Chris Wallace made me respect Fox News just a teensy weensy itty bitty bit more.
I have to give to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace—he might be the Ken Bone of the third debate. Wallace did an excellent job of keeping the questions fair, balanced and wrangling the politicians back to the question at hand (mostly). I give credit where it’s due.
Photo Credit: Getty
SEE ALSO:
Why Did Donald Trump Bring President Obama’s Brother To The Third Debate?
Top Five Moments Of Second Presidential Debate
From ‘Bad Hombres’ to ‘Nasty’ Women: Top 5 Moments Of The Final Presidential Debate was originally published on newsone.com
