Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump wrangled over their very different approaches to some of the country’s stickiest issues, including gun rights, abortion and immigration, in Wednesday night’s final debate.
Both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees stuck to policy right off the top of the third debate in Las Vegas. That was seen as a stark contrast to the heated and highly personal clashes that defined the earlier contests.
But as the debate progressed, Ms. Clinton and Mr. Trump were sniping at each other about ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Later, Mr. Trump said Ms. Clinton and President Barack Obama paid people to incite violence ahead of his planned rally in Chicago earlier this year.
The Republican also was viewed as threatening to upend a basic pillar of American democracy by refusing to say he would accept the results of the November election if he loses to Ms. Clinton, resistance that the Democrat described as “horrifying.”
And while the New York billionaire had largely held his tongue during the first half-hour — speaking only when called on and not interrupting, even when Ms. Clinton accused him of calling for women to be punished if abortions are outlawed — he later interrupted the former secretary of state when she was speaking on Russia, nuclear weapons and the tax code; and also moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.
Ms. Clinton forcefully accused Mr. Trump of favoring Russia’s leader over American military and intelligence experts, as the Republican nominee pointedly refused to accept the U.S. government’s assertion that Moscow has sought to meddle in the presidential election.
In a combative exchange, Ms. Clinton charged that Mr. Putin was backing Mr. Trump because “he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”