Final Presidential Debate Between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump: Time, How to Watch and What to Expect

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton are set to face off in the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night at 9 p.m. EST at University of Nevada in Las Vegas — a debate that has a chance to be the most entertaining of the series as Trump continues to swing wildly at Clinton, the media, House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican establishment.

In the previous debate, political suspense centered on whether or not the Republican presidential nominee could resurrect his campaign after a poor performance in the first debate compounded by a rough couple of weeks. But after losing another debate and additional weeks of a campaign careening out of control with sagging polls to match, the question for this debate is: Exactly how badly will Trump burn the house down?

Toward the beginning of the last debate, Trump suggested Clinton was "the devil," said she had "hate in her heart" and shuttled Bill Clinton's accusers from a pre-debate spectacle he live streamed with them to the debate hall — and that was when there were questions about a Trump comeback.

However, there is another part of the puzzle: Can Clinton hold her hand steady through yet another 90 minutes of clashing with Trump? She will undoubtedly face questions about her emails, WikiLeaks and Benghazi, but she's handled all those questions before.

In the last debate, as Trump attempted to get under Clinton's skin with constant interruptions and by hurling insults, Clinton remained calm. However, while the Democratic nominee kept her cool, when Trump faltered, she lost opportunities to strike — something Clinton supporters desperately wanted to see. A steady, albeit sometimes timid, performance won't lose a debate, but it didn't overwhelmingly win it for her either.

Chris Wallace of Fox News, the moderator of the third presidential debate, who has been accused of being tougher on Republicans than Democrats, will certainly have his work cut out for him based on the first two Clinton-Trump match-ups.

Wallace has selected the debate topics, which could be altered by news developments. But as it stands, the topics include: debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots and fitness to be president.

Over the weekend, Trump attempted to plant a prebuttal to tonight's debate by suggesting that Clinton had been on drugs during their second debate.

"I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate," Trump told a crowd of thousands gathered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Saturday.

He added: “We should take a drug test prior because I don’t know what’s going on with her. But at the beginning of her last debate — she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, ‘Oh, take me down.’ She could barely reach her car.”

Trump, who has shown no stamina for policy discussions in each of the debates, apparently did not consider the possibility that Clinton spoke less at the second debate so that he would speak more.

In recent days, Trump has been oscillating between delivering personal attacks against Clinton and seeking to undercut one of the foundations of American democracy by suggesting that the election is "rigged" against him — something that experts in electoral politics say in basically impossible to do.

President Obama delivered a blistering rebuke to Trump, telling him to "stop whining" about an election that is fixed before votes are cast.

"One of the great things about America’s democracy is we have a vigorous, sometimes bitter, political contest, and when it’s done, historically, regardless of party, the person who loses the election congratulates the winner, reaffirms our democracy and we move forward," Obama said Monday when asked about Trump’s claims.

"I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history, any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place," Obama said. "It’s unprecedented. It happens to be based on no facts."

Going into Wednesday's debate, Clinton is continuing to pull away in the polls, including some national and state polls showing the Democratic nominee ahead by double digits.

In recent national polling, Clinton leads head-to-head match-ups against Trump, with the Democrat holding 49.1 percent support compared to 41.9 percent for the New York businessman, according to averages compiled by RealClear Politics.

Join us for the Patch live stream tonight at 9 p.m. tonight!

The Debate Details:

• When: Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016
• Time: 9 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. EST; no commercial breaks
• Where: University of Nevada — Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Who: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News; Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein failed to make the debate based on recent polling.
• Viewing: The debate will be aired live on C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, as well as all cable news channels including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
• Format: The debate will be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on major topics to be selected by the moderator, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates. The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. Candidates will then have an opportunity to respond to each other. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topic.

More Patch Debate Coverage:

• Hillary Clinton Ally: Drop Fox News Presidential Debate Moderator Chris Wallace Over Conflict of Interest
• Hillary Clinton Continues to Pull Ahead in Polls While Donald Trump Puts Up Some Roadblocks
• Republican Voters Still Want GOP to Support Donald Trump After Video Surfaces
• Hillary Clinton Exposes Donald Trump's Pressure Points in First Presidential Debate
• Donald Trump Suggests Paul Ryan Isn't Helping Because 'Maybe He Wants to Run' in 2020
• Second Presidential Debate: Who Won — Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton — 5 Blistering Moments and More

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons