The audience question that caught Clinton, Trump off guard

• Debate ends with perfect question
• Trump’s brutal interjection: �?You would be in jail’
• Clinton �?caught in total lie’
• Trump dismisses tape controversy
• Shocking pre-debate stunt

A CANTANKEROUS Donald Trump deflected attention from his latest controversy by attacking Hillary Clinton on several fronts during the second presidential debate.

Trump even told Clinton she “should be in jail” at one point, as he criticised her over her email scandal.

Read on for all the updates from this pivotal day in the US election.

1:55pm

OK, that’s the end of the debate. Two down, one to go. To save you time, here are some links to the most important moments:

• Trump dismissed his controversial comments about women as “locker room banter” and tried to shift the focus to Bill Clinton’s indiscretions;

• Trump told Clinton she “should be in jail” over her email scandal;

• Clinton attacked Trump for saying “dangerous” things about Muslims;

• Trump admitted he had used a loophole to avoid paying federal income tax;

• Trump openly contradicted his own vice-presidential nominee;

• Clinton was grilled over her description of Trump’s supporters as “deplorables”;

• The last questioner of the night absolutely nailed it.

1:35pm

The last question of the night was absolutely perfect. It was also probably the hardest one they faced in the whole debate.

“Would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another?” the audience member asked, drawing laughter and applause from the rest of the crowd. Clinton answered first.

“I think that’s a very fair and important question. I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and devoted and I think that says a lot about Donald,” she said.

“I consider her statement about my children to be a very nice compliment,” Trump responded.

“I will say this about Hillary. She doesn’t quit, she doesn’t give up. I respect that.

“She does fight hard and she doesn’t quit and she doesn’t give up and I consider that to be a very good trait.”

1:30pm

Donald Trump essentially praised himself for tweeting at 3am in the morning in the wake of the first debate, when he was feuding with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. He suggested it meant he would be able to take the famous “3am phone call” that gets mentioned in every election.

“Take a look at Benghazi. Six hundred times, she said she was awake at - she was awake at three o’clock in the morning. She said she will be awake. The famous thing, she will take the call.

“Guess what happened. Ambassador Stevens sent 600 requests for help, and the only one she talked to was Sidney Blumenthal, who is her friend.”

In other words, Trump argued Clinton had failed the “3am call” test when she was secretary of state, and since he’s up at 3am tweeting anyway, he’ll pass it.

1:25pm

The moderators interrogated Clinton about one of her own controversial comments, when she called half of Trump’s supporters “deplorables".

“I am sorry for the way I talked about that. My argument is not with his supporters, it is with him, and the hateful and divisive campaign he has run,” Clinton said.

“Inciting of violence at his rallies. And the brutal comment about not just women, but many

different Americans, all kinds of Americans. And what he has said about African-Americans and Latinos and Muslims and prisoners of war, about immigrants, about people with disabilities, he has never apologised for.”

Trump fired back at her, saying “she meant” what she’d said about his supporters.

“Believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart. And when she said deplorable, she meant it. And when she said irredeemable, to me, that might even be worse. She has got tremendous hatred.”

1:15pm

During a discussion about the war in Syria, Trump openly contradicted his own vice-presidential nominee, Mike Pence.

“I want to remind you what your running mate said,” Martha Raddataz interjected after Trump had spoken about the need to cooperate with Russia in Syria. “(Pence) said provocations by Russia need to be met by American strength and that if Russia continues to be involved in airstrikes along with the Syrian government forces, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike the military targets of the Assad regime.”

“He and I have not spoken and I disagree. I disagree,” Trump admitted. “I think we need to knock out ISIS. Right now Syria is fighting ISIS.

“Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it is Iran who she made strong. They made it into a powerful nation and a very rich nation. Very, very quickly. I believe we have to get ISIS. We have to worry about ISIS before we can get to much more.”

1:05pm

An audience member asked the candidates what they would do to “ensure the wealthiest Americans” pay their fair share in taxes. Trump took the chance to address his own tax situation, admitting he had used a loophole to avoid paying federal income tax.

“Did you use that $960 million to avoid paying personal federal income taxes?” Raddataz asked.

“Of course I do. And so do all of her donors, most of the donors. I know many of her donors. The donors take massive tax write-offs,” Trump said.

“She will always allow it because the people who give her all this money, they want it.

“If she had a problem, for 30 years she has been doing this I said all the time, she talks about healthcare, why didn’t he do something, she talks about taxes, why didn’t she do something. She doesn’t do anything about anything other than talk. With her it is all talk and no action.”

12:55pm

Almost an hour into the debate, the moderators asked Hillary Clinton about leaked exceprts from her paid speeches to Wall Street, which were released by Wikileaks over the weekend. In those speeches, she seemed to suggest she had two positions on each political issue: a “private” one and a “public” one.

“I was making the point that it is hard sometimes to get Congress to do what you want to do, and you have to keep working at it,” Clinton answered.

“Let’s talk about what is really going on here, because our intelligence community just came out and said in the last few days, that the Kremlin, meaning Putin and the Russian government, are directly - are directing the attacks and hacking on American accounts, to influence our election.

“Believe me, they are not doing it to get me elected. They are doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump.”

Trump leapt at the chance to attack again.

“She got caught in a total lie, her papers went out to her friends at the banks, Goldman Sachs and everybody else, and she said things in Wikileaks that just came out. And she lied.”

12:40pm

The next questioner asked about America’s treatment of Muslims, and moderator Martha Raddatz brought up Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States.

“The Muslim ban is something that in some form has morphed into an extreme vetting from certain areas of world,” Trump replied.

“We are going to areas like Syria, where they’re coming in by the tens of thousands because of Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton wants to allow a 550 per cent increase.

“We have no idea who they are, where they are from, what their feelings about the country are. She wants 550 per cent more. This is going to be the great Trojan horse of all time.”

Clinton made a case for accepting refugees from Syria, and accused Trump of using “dangerous” rhetoric.

“I will not let anyone into our country who I think poses a risk to us,” she said.

“There are children suffering in this catastrophic war. Largely, I believe, because of Russian aggression and we need to do our part.

“How do we do what he has advocated without causing great distress within our own country? Are we going to have religious tests?” she said. “I thought that what he said was extremely unwise and even dangerous, and indeed you can look at the propaganda on a lot of the terrorist sites and at what Donald Trump says about Muslims is used to recruit fighters.”

12:35pm

Trump complained as the moderators tried to move on to more questions from the audience, saying the debate was “three on one”. Eventually, an undecided voter got to ask the candidates about health care.

“This may be one of the questions I get more than anything else, outside of the fence. Obamacare is a disaster,” Trump said.

“Nobody has ever seen numbers like this for healthcare and it is only getting worse. Their method of fixing it is to go back and ask Congress for more money. More and more money. We have almost $20 trillion in debt right now. Obamacare will never work. It is very bad. Very bad health-insurance. Far too expensive.”

Trump said he wanted to repeal President Obama’s health care law entirely. Clinton said she wanted to “fix” it.

“Let’s fix what is broken but let’s not throw it away and give it all back to the insurance companies,” she told the questioner.

12:25pm

After several minutes of back-and-forth, Trump pivoted to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

“When you talk about apologising, I think the thing you should be apologising for the 33,000 emails that you deleted, and that you acid washed, and then the two boxes of emails and other things that were taken from an office and are now missing,” Trump said.

“And I will tell you what. I did not think I would say this, but I am going to say it. And I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies are so much deception, there has never been anything like it, and we are going to have a special prosecutor.

“We are going to get a special prosecutor and we are going to look into it, because you know what? People have been ... Their lives have been destroyed for doing one fifth of what you have done, and it is a disgrace, and honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Clinton fired back, accusing Trump of telling lies.

“Everything he said is absolutely false, but I am not surprised,” she said. “It is just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.”

“Because you would be in jail,” Trump shot back, drawing “oooohs” from the audience.

“You should be in jail,” he said a few moments later, reinforcing the point.

12:15pm

Following up on the first question, moderator Anderson Cooper brought up the elephant in the room - that video of Trump that was released on the weekend.

“The question was about modelling positive and appropriate behaviour. We received a lot of questions online, Mr Trump, about the tape released on Friday,” Cooper said.

“You call that what you said at locker room banter. You describe kissing women without consent and grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”

Trump didn’t concede any ground in response.

“This is locker room talk. I am not proud of it and I apologise to my family and to the American people. Certainly I am not proud of it but this is locker room talk,” Trump said. “Yes, I am embarrassed and I hate it, but it is locker room talk and it is one of those things.”

“Just for the record, however, are you saying that what you said on that last 11 years ago that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?” Cooper asked.

“I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect than I do. But, frankly you hear these things. As I said. And I was embarrassed by it but I have tremendous respect for women,” Trump replied.

“Have you ever done those things?” Cooper followed up.

“No I have not,” Trump said.

At that point, Clinton got a chance to jump in.

“I said, starting back in June, that he was not fit to be and commander-in-chief. And many Republicans and independents have said the same thing,” Clinton said.

“What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women. And he has said that the video does not represent who he is. But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is.

“We have seen this throughout the campaign. We have seen him insult women. We have seen him rate women on their appearance. We saw him after the first debate spend nearly a week denigrating a former Miss Universe. In the harshest most personal terms. So, yes, this is who Donald Trump is.

“We need to send a message to every boy and girl and to the entire world that America is already great but we are great because we are good.”

Trump wasn’t going to take that without responding.

“Am I allowed to respond to that? I assume I am. It is just words, folks. I have been hearing those words for many years,” Trump shot back, before bringing up Bill Clinton’s sex scandals.

“If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse, mine are words, his were actions. What he has done to women, there has never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that has been so abusive to women. So you can say anything you want to say, any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women,” Trump said.

“When Hillary brings up that, and talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it is disgraceful, and I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth.”

12:05pm

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton did not shake hands when they strode out on stage, instead just saying a quick “Hello,” to each other. Interesting.

“Do you feel you are modelling appropriate and positive behaviour for today’s youth,” the first questioner, a teacher, asked.

“I have a very positive and optimistic view about what we can do together,” Clinton responded.

“If we work together, if we overcome the divisiveness that sometimes sets Americans against one another ... If we set those goals and we go together to try to achieve them, there is nothing in my opinion that America cannot do.

“I’m hoping be elected in November and I can promise you I will work with every American. I want to be the President for all Americans, regardless of your political beliefs, where you come from, what you look like, your religion.”

“Well I actually agree with that. I agree with everything she said,” Trump started in response. He proceeded to talk about topics such as health care, trade, law and order, and the nuclear deal with Iran, not addressing the question directly.

11:45am

Trump wasn’t always so sympathetic towards Bill Clinton’s accusers. As CNN reports, Trump defended Clinton in the 1990s and insulted his alleged victims.

In 2008, Trump said the Monica Lewinsky scandal was “totally unimportant”, and in 1998 during an interview with CNBC, he called Ms Jones “a loser”.

Also in 1998, Trump let loose in an interview with Fox News.

“I don’t necessarily agree with (Clinton’s) victims. His victims are terrible. He is, he is really a victim himself. But he put himself in that position,” Trump said.

“These people, I just don’t know where he met them, where he found them. But the whole group ... it’s truly an unattractive cast of characters. Linda Tripp, Lucianne Goldberg. I mean, this woman, I watch her on television. She is so bad. The whole group, Paula Jones, Lewinsky, it’s just a really unattractive group. I’m not just talking about physical.”

Trump meets Clinton accusers2:47

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump convened a meeting of women who accuse former President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct in St. Louis ahead of debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

• October 10th 2016
• 2 days ago
• /video/video.news.com.au/News/

Trump meets Clinton accusers

11:20am

DONALD Trump has dropped a bomb an hour before the second presidential debate, calling a snap news conference with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting them.

Trump sat at a table alongside these women: Kathleen Willey, a former White House worker who says Clinton groped her in 1993; Juanita Broaddrick, who claims Clinton raped her in 1978; Paula Jones, who settled a sexual harassment case against Bill Clinton for $850,000 without any admission of guilt in 1999; and Kathy Shelton, whose rapist was defended in court by Hillary Clinton when she was a lawyer.

“These four very courageous women have asked to be here and it was our honour to help them,” Trump said before yielding the microphone to the women one-by-one.

“I’m here to support Mr Trump because he’s going to make America great again. I think they should all look at the fact that he’s a good person,” Ms Jones said.

“At 12 years old, Hillary put me through something that you should never put a 12-year-old through,” said Ms Shelton.

“I tweeted recently and Mr Trump retweeted it, that actions speak louder than words. Mr Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me. I don’t think there’s any comparison,” Ms Broaddrick said.

“I think that this is the greatest country in the world, I think we can do anything, I think we can accomplish anything, and I think Donald Trump can deliver that,” Ms Willey said.

As the news conference wrapped up, reporters repeatedly asked Trump whether his status as a celebrity allowed him to touch women without their consent, referring to the controversial tape that has thrown his campaign into turmoil.

“Why don’t y’all go ask Bill Clinton that? Go ahead and ask Hillary as well!” Ms Jones shouted back.

The Clinton campaigned responded quickly, accusing Trump of “going low”.

“We’re not surprised to see Donald Trump continue his destructive race to the bottom. Hillary Clinton understands the opportunity in this town hall is to talk to voters on stage and in the audience about the issues that matter to them, and this stunt doesn’t change that. If Donald Trump doesn’t see that, that’s his loss. As always, she’s prepared to handle whatever Donald Trump throws her way.”

Originally published as Perfect question owns debate