5 Times Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Actually Discussed Issues Wednesday

The third presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Wednesday night was, in many ways, much more issues-focused than the previous two debates, which featured name-calling, interruptions and general unpleasantness.

Instead, the candidates had plenty of chances to hash out their stances on abortion, immigration and Russia.
Wednesday still delivered its fair share of moments that defied traditional political decorum. In case you thought Clinton and Trump had set aside their differences, you were proven wrong right away. The two candidates again did not shake hands when they walked out onto the stage.

Aaaaand, we were off.

Here were five times when the candidates actually talked about, you know, the issues.

“Rigged election”?

Wallace hit Trump with a question on a theme that has been central to his campaign recently — that the election will be “rigged” at the highest level in favor of Clinton.

So, does he actually think this will happen? Trump would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

“I will look at it at the time,” Trump said. “I’m not looking at it now.”

Clinton called that suggestion "horrifying."

Abortion

Possibly the longest and most issues-focused segment of these three debates came early Wednesday, when the candidates traded jabs on abortion during a discussion about the Supreme Court.

“I will defend Roe v. Wade, and I will defend women's rights to make their own healthcare decisions,” Clinton said, standing by one of her signature issues.

Trump responded by saying Clinton wants to “rip the baby out of the womb on the ninth month on the final day.” Clinton has never proposed such a thing.

Immigration

The candidates also got a chance to go back and forth on Trump’s signature issue, immigration.

“I think we are both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,” Clinton said, advocating for security while providing a path to citizenship.

Trump stuck with his standard hard-line stances on immigration and even added a new one: “We have some bad hombres here,” he said, invoking the Spanish word for men, “and we’re gonna get them out.”

Wikileaks and Russia

The hacked emails of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta were bound to come up, and Trump took the opportunity to give one of his most impassioned defenses of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to date.

“I actually think the most important question of this evening, Chris, is finally, will Donald Trump admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this and make it clear that he will not have the help of Putin in this election, that he reject Russian espionage against Americans, which he actually encouraged in the past?” Clinton said.

Trump, in his defense, doubled down on his assertion that Putin is a better leader than President Obama.

“Putin has outsmarted for an ever step of the way,” Trump said. “Putin has outsmarted her on Syria; he has outsmarted her.”

Women

The now-infamous leaked audio of Trump talking about women in lewd terms, and the number of women who have come forward since to say they were sexually assaulted by him, put Trump on the defensive.

“I didn't even apologize to my wife because I didn't do it,” Trump said. (His wife said in television interviews this week that he did apologize.)

“What isn’t fictionalized, is her emails,” he continued, deflecting.

Images via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons