US Presidential Debate: The Last Clinton-Trump Face-Off
With less than three weeks to go before
Americans cast ballots November 8, polls showed Clinton widening her
lead over the Republican nominee.
The 90-minute debate at the University
of Las Vegas, Nevada offers Trump what may be his last chance to turn
around a campaign that has been battered by a stream of allegations he
groped and forced himself on women.
“We’ve only just begun to fight, believe
me,” Trump said while campaigning in Grand Junction, Colorado Tuesday.
“This is our final shot, folks.”
Clinton has kept a low profile in recent
days, shutting herself in with aides at a hotel near her home in
Chappaqua, New York to prepare for the third televised debate of the
campaign.
Both candidates on Tuesday jetted
separately into this gambling and entertainment capital in the Nevada
desert ahead of the high stakes encounter.
Moderated by Fox News journalist Chris
Wallace, the event begins at 0100 GMT, before a televised audience
expected to number in the millions.
The candidates will be asked about the
debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court,
foreign flashpoints and their fitness to be president.
The past two debates quickly degenerated
into highly personal, mudslinging attacks that pushed substantive
policy issues to the side.
Clinton “should do what she did in the
two first debates which was largely remain calm, deflect criticism and
attacks and let Donald Trump continue to self destruct,” said John
Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“If your opponent’s ship is sinking you don’t throw them a life preserver,” he said.
Debate lessons
Trump undoubtedly will draw on the lessons of the past two debates, and sharpen his attacks on Hillary over Syria and Libya.
The jihadist attack on the US diplomatic
mission in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 remains a burning
issue among Republicans, who hold the former secretary of state
partially responsible for the deaths of four Americans, including the
ambassador.
Trump has invited Patricia Smith, the
mother of a communications expert killed in the attack, to attend the
debate, according to Yahoo News. During the last debate, he invited four
women, three of whom had accused former president Bill Clinton of
sexual assault.
An average of recent national polls
shows Clinton with about 46 percent support to 39 percent for Trump and
6.4 percent for Liberatarian candidate Gary Johnson.
Trump predicts an electoral surprise, or “new Brexit,” on November 8.
But as he’s lost ground, the New York
billionaire has attacked the election process itself, complaining of a
massive conspiracy to rig the elections against him.
“The press has created a rigged system and poisoned the minds of the voters,” he said Tuesday.
“Either we win this election or we lose the country.”
AFP
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