With the election just over two weeks away, the final presidential debate seems more like a tangible representation of the closing of this election cycle than an opportunity for the candidates to turn the tides in their favor. The format emulated the first debate: the moderator would choose questions that they deemed the most important. This debate's moderator, Chris Wallace, is a well-known news anchor for the conservative channel Fox News. Though he initially stated that he believed moderators should not aim to correct candidates' factual inaccuracies, Wallace proved to be a firm facilitator, and did not allow Trump or Clinton to skirt around difficult questions.
While there have not been any major scandals involving Donald Trump since the previous debate, he has consistently polled far behind Secretary Hillary Clinton since their first debate back in December. Trump would have needed a stupendous performance at this debate to bolster his ailing campaign so close to the election.
The rhetoric of this debate hardly differed from that of the previous two. Trump repeated his previous answers almost verbatim, once again attempting to deflect the moderator's questions by bringing up Clinton's temperament, inaccurately recounting her record in public service, and once again pointing to her deleted emails as proof of her ability to lead. He constantly interrupted both when Clinton and the moderator spoke, speaking over them entirely or interjecting with either "Correct," or "Wrong," depending on whether or not he felt attacked. As per his entire campaign, Trump's answers proved to be mostly false and not rooted in facts. Many viewers have latched onto his answer on immigration reform: "We have some bad hombres here, and we're gonna get 'em out." It seems like an attempt on Trump's part to broaden his appeal to Latino voters, though it seems dubious that any voters would be persuaded by the use of one botched Spanish word.
Clinton was well-prepared, though did end up giving several tangential answers that did not directly address the question she had been asked, though this was oftentimes because the conversation had been derailed by Trump. For example, when the candidates were asked about justices they would appoint to the Supreme Court if given the opportunity, Trump brought up the Second Amendment and spoke about the right of all Americans to own firearms; Clinton built off his answer and advocated for sensible gun reform. One of her most memorable answers from the evening involved referring to Trump as a puppet for Vladimir Putin, who Trump has consistently praised. Clinton, like Trump, also seemed to have a similar set of answers to the ones she has been using in all the debates thus far, though her answers are tangible policy proposals that have become more detailed over time.
The most disturbing answer of the evening came from Trump. At his rallies, particularly in the past month or so, Trump has repeatedly emphasized that he will lose the election because all factors have been rigged against him. He has blamed polls, the media, and even Secretary Clinton directly for sabotaging his campaign. He has even claimed that voter fraud would detract from his total number of votes even though there were only thirty-one cases on voter fraud out of one billion in the previous election. Both his running mate, Mike Pence, and his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, have come out and said that they would accept the result of the election, regardless of who emerges the victor. Trump, however, refused to say that he would accept the result, stating that he would "look at it at the time" and "keep [Americans] in suspense." The implications of this statement are, as Clinton put it, horrifying. Trump has not only continued making completely baseless accusations about the political system, but has outright attacked the very foundation of American democracy. In a rally the day after the debate, Trump claimed he would only accept the outcome of the election if he won.
Trump's blustering claims have not helped his poll numbers, and have actually proven to be more detrimental than helpful to his campaign. Right-of-center news outlet FiveThirtyEight has updated their election forecast, which now claims that Clinton has a nearly 87 percent chance of winning the election-an increase of 5 percent since the previous debate. Left-leaning debate forecasts, such as the New York Times, have put Clinton's chances at around 92 percent. Overall, it seems as though there is nothing Trump can do at this point in time to turn things around, though it will be interesting to see how he attempts to do so until November 8th.
