Five Trump-Clinton Round Two Moments That Will Impact the Race

Republican Donald Trump delivered a steadier overall performance during the second presidential debate Sunday than he did in the first, but will the post-debate coverage go beyond the first 20 minutes?

It’s not the typical election when one candidate calls for the other to be thrown into the clink.

“People have been, their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done. And it’s a disgrace. And honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Here are five moments that could impact the race as it heads toward Election Day:

1.) The gloves come off. Trump set the tone early by promising to instruct his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to reopen the closed probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

“People have been, their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done,” he said. “And it’s a disgrace. And honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

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Liberals and much of the media likely will view that as an over-the-top shot — far beneath the nation’s tradition of rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power. It remains to be seen how voters will react to it.

It was preordained that the debate would turn early to the latest controversy to rattle Trumps’s campaign — his 11-year-old lewd comments from an open mic about assaulting women. Trump gave the best answer he possibly could have, telling viewers he was not proud of what he said and then pivoting to Clinton’s record.

“It’s just words, folks. Just words,” he said. “Those words — I’ve been hearing them for many years. I heard them when they were running for the Senate. In New York. Where Hillary was going to bring back jobs to Upstate New York and she failed.”

As for Clinton, she said she would follow first lady Michelle Obama’s advice to “go high” when her opponents “go low.” Then she launched into one vicious attack after another. She said Trump is responsible for “very divisive, dark things said about Muslims.”

She even blamed him for schoolyard bullying.

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“And there’s a lot of fear. In fact, teachers and parents are calling it the ‘Trump effect,'” she said. “Bullying is up. A lot of people are feeling uneasy, a lot of kids are expressing their concerns.”

When an audience member at the town hall-style debate asked each for one positive statement about the other, Clinton could only come up with a roundabout compliment — that Trump’s children are accomplished.

2.) Hillary doubles down on Obamacare. An audience member asked about fast-rising insurance premiums brought by the Affordable Care Act. It is a huge potential liability for Clinton that strangely has taken a backseat in the campaign.

Trump pounced.

“Obamacare is a total disaster, and not only are your rates going up by numbers nobody’s believed, but your deductibles are going up — so unless you get hit by a truck, you’re never going to be able to use it,” he said. “It is a disastrous plan and has to be repealed. And replaced.”

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Trump accused Clinton of wanting to impose a single-payer health system on America.

Clinton gave an answer very similar to one that President Obama gave while campaigning in 2008.

“Look, we are in a situation in our country, where if we were to start all over again, we might come up with a different system,” she said. “But we have an employer-based system. That’s where the vast majority of people get their health care.”

Here is Obama in August 2008 at a town hall meeting in New Mexico: “If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system.”

3.) Crooked Hillary vs. Honest Abe. Clinton tried to defend embarrassing revelations from last week’s WikiLeaks document dump indicating that she told a group of bankers that it was important to have a public position and a private position on important issues. She invoked Abraham Lincoln.

“Right, as I recall, that was something I said about Abraham Lincoln, and after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielberg movie called ‘Lincoln,'” she said. “It was a master class watching President Lincoln get the Congress to approve the 13th Amendment. It was principled and strategic. I was making the point that it is hard sometimes to get the Congress to do what you want to do.”

Trump responded with humor.

“Now she’s blaming — she got caught in a total lie … Now she’s blaming the lie on the late great Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “That’s one that I haven’t — OK, Honest Abe never lied. That’s the good thing. That’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you. That’s a big, big difference — we’re talking about some difference.”

4.) Russia and Putin. Clinton zoomed in on a theme where she thinks Trump is vulnerable — insufficient belligerence toward Russia. She cited recent State Department allegations that Russian hackers are trying to influence the U.S. election.

“They’ve also decided who they want to see become president of the United States too, and it’s not me,” she said. “I’ve stood up to Russia. I’ve taken on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and others, and I would do that as president.”

Trump deflected suggestions that he is bosom buddies with Putin. He argued for prioritizing the destruction of the Islamic State terrorist group, even if it means accepting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

“One thing I have to say, I don’t like Assad at all but Assad is killing ISIS,” he said. “Russia is killing ISIS. And Iran is killing ISIS. And those three have now lined up because of our weak foreign policy.”

Foreign policy experts disagree on how seriously Russia, Syria, and Iran want to take on ISIS. But it was a substantive exchange on an important issue where the candidates differ. The campaign has been remarkably light on those sorts of exchanges.

5.) Speaking of ISIS. Clinton vowed to destroy ISIS but shied away from the most aggressive step that the United States could take — sending American ground troops. Instead, she said she would rely on the cooperation of Muslim countries in the Middle East.

Clinton said she would specifically and personally target the leader of ISIS. She said she would consider arming Kurdish forces in the region and added that having “Arab fighters on the ground are the principal way that we take Raqqah after pushing ISIS out of Iraq.”

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Building that coalition would be threatened by Trump’s comments about Muslims, Clinton said.

“Right now, a lot of those nations are hearing what Donald says and wondering, ‘Why should we cooperate with the Americans?'” she said. “And this is a gift to ISIS and the terrorists. Violent jihadist terrorists.”

It is a remarkable claim — that Middle East countries that have every reason to fight an organization that poses a significant security threat to them would ignore those dangers because Trump has made controversial comments about Islam.

Trump, as he has done in the past, complained the United States has telegraphed its plans to lead a coalition attack on ISIS-held Mosul in Iraq.

“Why can’t they do it quietly?” he asked. “Why can’t they do the attack, make it a sneak attack and after the attack is made, inform the American public that we’ve knocked out the leaders? We’ve had a tremendous success … General George Patton, General Douglas MacArthur are spinning in their grave.”