The Second Presidential Debate this past Sunday came at a crucial time in this Presidential election. Republican nominee, Donald Trump, was heavily criticized over the weekend after a video surfaced of Trump making controversial comments about women. This isn’t the first time the nominee has made questionable statements, but it came at a pivotal time as he was facing Secretary Clinton on the stage shortly after. This debate was undeniably more hostile than the first debate; with many more personal attacks and criticisms of character from both nominees.
Trump:
The republican candidate was visibly upset and irritated in the first few minutes of the debate. Following the controversy of Donald Trump’s “locker room” comments, many political analysts were intrigued to see how he would handle himself on the stage. Trump seemed to go on the offensive, by attacking Bill Clinton and bringing up his past discrepancies with women during his time in the White House. Trump also seemed to threaten that if he were President, Clinton would be in jail because of her email scandal. (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/27/us/politics/what-we-know-about-hillary-clintons-private-email-server.html)
The Republican party has been using the email incident as a major pushback against her campaign since the beginning of the election.
Clinton:
Hillary Clinton surprised some political analysts in this past debate because of her attitude towards Donald Trump. She was visibly annoyed by his comments, especially when he threatened that she would be in jail. She used his statements against him, claiming that a man with such “temperament” should never be in charge of the world’s greatest Army, among other responsibilities the President has. Clinton was interrupted many times while she was speaking by Mr. Trump, but was able to keep her cool. Clinton was also asked about comments she made in September, when she called Trump supporters “deplorable”. She explained that the comments were a misunderstanding and said that, “My argument is not with his supporters, it’s with him and the hateful and divisive campaign that he’s run”. She also apologized to his supporters for the confusion.