The second televised debate, which took place at Washington University in St. Louis early on October 10 Ukrainian time, was won, just like the first, by Democrat Hillary Clinton. According to CNN, 57 percent of those polled saw her as the winner. By way of comparison, Republican Donald Trump was named as the winner by 34 percent of the survey’s participants.
This time, the two teams confronted each other in the town hall format. Half of the questions to the participants came from members of the public present in the room, while the other half was asked by the hosts, ABC’s chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz and CNN’s news anchor Anderson Cooper.
The debate has made very clear the two candidates’ highly different takes on Russia’s role, both in Syria and regarding its possible interference with the election results in the US.
Clinton promised to confront Putin and criticized Russia’s actions in Syria. “I have stood up to Russia. I have taken on Putin and others, and I would do that as president,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, Trump stayed true to his dovish stance on Russia and Putin at this debate as well. He clearly distanced himself from statements made by his running mate, US vice presidential candidate Mike Pence, who is critical of Russia, including its activities in Syria, and stressed the following: “The aggressive Russian bear never dies, it just hibernates.”
Trump also expressed doubts about the Clinton campaign’s allegations that Russia was involved in hacking the Democratic Party’s emails, and even questioned whether such a cyber attack ever took place. This is despite the US intelligence officially confirming it the day before.
COMMENTARIES
Lincoln MITCHELL, political scientist, former professor of the Columbia University, author of the book The Democracy Promotion Paradox:
“Given the events of the last few days, Sunday night’s debate was surprisingly calm. It was almost as if the questioners did not want to probe Donald Trump too much on his boasting of sexually assaulting women for fear they would embarrass him. Instead, we saw that Trump, after being embattled for a few days, was angrier and more aggressive than usual. The body language we saw from the Republican nominee – the pacing on stage, grimacing, wagging his index finger at Hillary Clinton every time he spoke, the facial tics, nervous shrugging and the like were more evident than at any previous debate. Many in the US have been asking whether Trump has the temperament to be President of our country. That is the wrong question to ask. It is very evident that Donald Trump does not have the temperament to be President of the block association, let alone of the US. Last night we saw a man running for President whose body language was such that if you saw him walking down the street, you would cross to the other side.
“Hillary Clinton was composed, but less sharp than usual, Chelsea Clinton should be lauded for not walking onstage and smacking Donald Trump in his orange face. If anybody spoke to, lied about, and threatened my mother the way Trump did to Clinton last night, I am not sure I would be able to show such restraint.”
Aubrey JEWETT, professor, Department of Political Science, University of Central Florida:
“The release of the tapes dominated the first 20 minutes of the debates (and really the pre-debate press conference that Trump held with four women who accuse Bill and Hillary Clinton of treating them very badly. Trump did his best to apologize and then attack Bill and Hillary Clinton for their actual behavior towards woman as opposed to just using vulgar language when talking in private with another guy. Still the insulting and rude comments Trump made on tape will continue to cause problems with him among women voters. The tape of Trump’s comments have dominated the news cycle for several days and may overshadow his debate performance (which was better than the first one) and may also overshadow the release of emails that reportedly show Hillary saying very complimentary things to Wall Street bankers in her speeches while at the same time saying other things to public. The debates may change some minds but I think undecided voters may have left this debate as confused as ever.”
