Authors: The London Globalist Editorial Team

For the third and final presidential debate, we stayed up until 3:30am so that you wouldn’t have to. With a bevy of beverages and a list of common catch phrases from each candidate on the whiteboard, we began our endeavour to watch the car crash in action. We weren’t disappointed (or at least, not more disappointed than usual).

SUPREME COURT JUDGE

For the first time this year, we were treated to a political debate hosting Donald Trump that had some serious content and specific discussion on issues, instead of the usual blame game. We can attribute this to more detailed discussion on various issues to the questions surrounding the appointment of a new Supreme Court Judge.

Unsurprisingly, Trump wanted pro-life, 2^nd amendment upholding judges with a ‘conservative bent.’ Clinton was quick on the offensive throughout the discussion of the 2^nd amendment, bringing out the NRA’s strong political interest in Trump and the millions spent to secure their endorsement through ad campaign attacks. Donald being Donald did not disagree; instead, very modestly let it drop that he was the earliest candidate endorsed by the NRA, ever.

When it came to Roe v. Wade and women’s reproductive rights, Clinton immediately pointed out Trump’s comments on ‘punishing women’ who obtain abortions. Trump proceeded to create a graphic image of “ripping babies out of the womb of mothers” a day before birth. Clinton condemned this scare rhetoric, going on to describe her visits to countries where governments forced women to bear children. Thankfully for Trump, the debate moved on to immigration, his pet subject besides Rosie O’ Donnell.

IMMIGRATION

When it came to border control, Trump continued with his reliable trend of surprising nobody. With a good ol’ sniff, he lamented how America was full of ‘bad bad’ drug lords. We collectively cringed when he referred to them as “bad hombres” and  wondered how a group called ‘Latinos for Trump’ ever came to exist. Clinton used her time on the issue to bring up the embarrassing “we will not pay for the wall” Twitter debacle with the Mexican President. She undermined Trump’s negotiating power, and personally attacked his use of undocumented immigrants for the construction of the Trump Tower.  She tactfully swayed to her own stance of bringing immigrants “out of the shadows” and into the formal economy.

Throughout the debate, we saw different shades of Clinton. She almost began to “trump the Trump” with her aggressive and taunting style. This was a marked shift to the offensive, in contrast to her tame and calm approach in the past two debates.

WIKILEAKS

Yet, we soon saw Clinton back on the defensive when the moderator, Chris Wallace, posed a question about WikiLeaks publishing a speech she had made to a Brazilian bank for which she was paid $225,000. We watched as Trump burst with gratitude; he even mouthed a very sincere ‘thank you’. I’ll admit it, we all laughed. Clinton replied with an extremely unpersuasive answer, side-tracking the matter to energy and blaming the Russian government for espionage against the Americans. Her point of reference for this statement was information from “17 government agencies”, the existence of which most of us ignored. Trump denied being Putin’s hand-holding pillow-fighting hair-braiding best friend. None of us were really convinced.

THE ECONOMY

As the topic shifted, Clinton talked about helping small businesses and creating new jobs whereas Trump reliably blamed Obama for doubling the national debt. Throughout the discussion, Trump wouldn’t let go of Bill Clinton’s signed NAFTA deal. He cried ‘free trade, free trade,’ along with the usual solution of cutting taxes ‘massively.’ Again, he revealed he had no more knowledge of economics than a 9^th grader.

More words were said and gradually I began to zone out. At this point, I’d already refilled my drink multiple times (this is the result of having to drink every time Trump interrupts or sniffs). I refocused, hearing a groan from the crowd to Trump stating “You’ve been doing this for 30 years, why the hell didn’t you do it over the last 15-20 years.” But it was the same hackneyed attack, and my attention wandered. By the time I came back Trump was blaming Clinton for the missing $6 billion in the State Department. She avoided going into detail about the State Department but drew a very interesting comparison of her last 30 years with that of Trump’s. I have a feeling she practised this a few dozen times with her team; in any case, for me, this was the defining moment of the debate. We got to know specifically what Secretary Clinton has done and achieved compared to reality show host Donald Trump. Words cannot do justice to Clinton’s comparisons, and I highly recommend you take a few minutes to watch it online.

On the subject of the nine women who came forward, accusing Trump of groping them, he replied: “I didn’t even apologise to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn’t do anything. I believe it was her campaign that did it.” Oh, and The Donald did go on to say, “nobody has more respect for women than I do, nobody.” We sighed and hoped for the sake of all women that this wasn’t true.

The debate went on to Trump Foundation vs the Clinton Foundation. Trump attacked Clinton on accepting money from Saudi Arabia while Clinton mentioned Trump purchasing a 6-foot portrait of himself.

THE LAST BITS

The debate took a slightly serious turn when Clinton reminded the world that there was just a four-minute gap between the president giving the order to launch nuclear warheads, to them actually being launched. Needless to say, she mentioned former presidents declaring they did not trust Trump’s ‘tiny fingers’ on the nuclear button, to which Trump replied that he had 21 generals and admirals endorsing him. He then went on to talk about the fortune America was spending defending other nations, and how he would better re-negotiate these agreements. Clinton’s ‘stronger together’ message couldn’t have been stronger when she said America had kept its peace through its alliances.

Chris Wallace ended the debate by asking the candidates for their closing statements. In a fitting contrast to Trump’s divisiveness throughout the campaign, Clinton reached out to all Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike. I was impressed initially, though became a bit amused when she said she would stand up for children and families against powerful interest and corporations. Her very many donors wouldn’t be too pleased by that.

Trump ended with his usual fire: Make America Great Again, take care of the depleted military and the vets and get rid of illegal immigrants. But we laughed louder than we did at Clinton when he said he would do more for African-Americans and Latinos than Clinton would do in 10 lifetimes. No kidding, 10!

The brawl doesn’t end here. If you have the capacity for more, please take a look at the Alfred E Smith Memorial Dinner speeches where Trump and Clinton roasted each other. I personally feel there’s a lot more to come until 8^th November. Trump may score a surprise victory or the polls will be rigged, one of the two.