We analyzed the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump in live time. Here are the highlights, and what happened when Mr. Trump held a news conference with Bill Clinton’s accusers. Plus, our fact checks.
Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Good evening, all. Donald Trump held a surprise press conference with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault over the years.
Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump held the press conference with what he called “four very courageous women” who had asked to be with him.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
He tweeted that this was his final debate prep, with a Facebook Live.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Paula Jones, whose claims helped lead to the Monica Lewinsky discovery, began speaking.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Next was Kathy Shelton, who was 12 years old when she said she was raped. Hillary Clinton, a public defender in 1975 in Arkansas, defended the man accused of the crime.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Clinton was caught chuckling as she described her client’s guilt on an audio tape obtained by the website The Washington Free Beacon years ago.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
“Bill Clinton raped me, and Hillary Clinton threatened me,” said Juanita Broaddrick, who said there wasn’t “any comparison” with what Trump said in a recording with Billy Bush, then the host of “Access Hollywood.”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Shelton said Clinton put her through something that no 12-year-old should have to go through.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
“Why don’t you all ask Bill Clinton that?” Jones said, when asked about Trump’s words on the tape. There was applause, and then the audio feed was cut.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
This was not a full press conference for the media – there was a scramble among those who were there.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
It was the pool reporters who cover Trump.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump sat flanked by two women on each side.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
If anyone was wondering how ugly tonight is going to get, Trump just answered it.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Quite a stunning way to “prep” for the second presidential debate.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
When he was asked by a reporter, “Does your star power allow you to touch women without their consent?” Paula Jones responded that the question should be directed toward Bill Clinton.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Earlier today Rudy Giuliani suggested that Trump would not bring up Bill Clinton’s history of infidelity. This suggests otherwise.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump’s campaign advisers have repeatedly told him that he should only bring up the issue of accusations against Bill Clinton if Hillary Clinton criticizes him for comments he has made in the past.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
This was a stunning grenade that he just threw.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Alan, I think the question is whether the Trump campaign gives these women the campaign’s tickets in the debate hall.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Certainly this is not the kind of thing that someone who is feeling contrite or humbled by what happened this weekend would do.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Perhaps he will still stay away from this stuff during the debate, but just wants to get into Clinton’s head in the last hour.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
On the video, Trump’s campaign chairman, Steve Bannon, can be seen grinning at the back of the room. The website he took a leave from, Breitbart, published an interview with Broaddrick today.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
She has been among the most vocal of women who have accused Bill Clinton in the past during the course of this campaign.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
ABC News’ John Santucci says on Twitter that Jones, Willey and Broaddrick will be in the debate hall, presumably as guests of the Trump campaign.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
It isn’t clear whether Kathy Shelton will be.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
But her story is incredibly painful — she was raped at age 12, and has had a very difficult life.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The audio of Clinton talking about defending her attacker in 1975 was unearthed by The Free Beacon.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Shelton is a fairly unfamiliar name to a public that has heard about Clinton and women for the last 25 years.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Hillary Clinton wrote in passing about the case in her book “Living History.”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Glenn Thrush, a reporter at Politico who was then at Newsday, went to Arkansas and dug up the case files, and found that the case was a bit more complicated than Clinton had described in her book.-
Preparations at Washington University in St. Louis for the second presidential debate. Doug Mills/The New York Times Alan Rappeport
Reporter
It’s an interesting window into how Trump prepares for big moments. Some people might meditate, listen to some music or have a light meal before a debate. He hosted a surprise panel with Clinton accusers.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
What remains to be seen is whether Trump raises this or points to these women in the hall.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Several people have noted today that Trump previously expressed sympathy for Hillary Clinton over her public marital problems.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Besides the personal stuff, it will be interesting to see what Trump makes of the leaked Clinton campaign emails. They showed her being cozy with Wall Street and embracing free trade.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Those revelations have been overshadowed by Trump’s vulgar video, but it is the kind of thing that would have been damaging to her in the primary against Sanders.
Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Is there any chance he’s doing it now so that he doesn’t have to deal with the uncomfortable challenge of bringing these kinds of things up in front of an audience of regular voters tonight?Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Or alternatively, to try to put Mrs. Clinton off guard.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
It has been a pattern for Trump to avoid confrontation in person and then lash out from a distance. This could be another example of that.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Although he went pretty hard after Rubio and Jeb Bush on the debate stage.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
The Clinton campaign just put out a statement calling Trump’s panel of accusers a “stunt.”Alan Rappeport
Reporter
“We’re not surprised to see Donald Trump continue his destructive race to the bottom,” said Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
One thing I’ve learned is never to try to predict what Trump might do, for obvious reasons. Especially when he’s under a lot of strain, which I presume he is tonight.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Our colleague Pat Healy has just confirmed that Mr. Trump has invited the four women to sit in the debate hall during the 90-minute event, according to a Republican familiar with the invitation.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton are also expected to be in the hall watching the debate.
Nick Confessore
Reporter
Hey everyone – signing on a little late tonight. Did I miss anything?Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Just another quiet night in Trump land, Nick.Nick Confessore
Reporter
My night so far is a metaphor for this whole campaign. Put down your phone for half an hour …Nick Confessore
Reporter
Well, one question from my pre-debate write up is now answered: Trump did go nuclear.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Against the advice of a lot of Republicans.Nick Confessore
Reporter
It is hard to be surprised. What other way of changing the game did Trump have?Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Before you came on, I was wondering if this might just be a pre-debate gambit and whether he won’t want to bring this up before an audience of regular voters.Nick Confessore
Reporter
I am going to guess he will. But as Alan pointed out earlier, Trump has a habit of chickening out in these encounters.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
He might not be able to stop himself.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Or maybe he’ll go on, again, about how he was thinking about bringing all of this stuff up but decided otherwise.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Nick, I am totally with you – he is going scorched-earth and burning it all down.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
That having been said, I wonder whether Trump will say any of this to Clinton.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
And he is basically doing exactly what Republican establishment supporters asked him not to do, right?Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Yes, the remaining establishment supporters wanted him to mention these women only reactively – meaning that if Clinton went after him about the recording, they advised him to show humility and bring this up only to make a point.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
He’s bringing it up beforehand, and also will have all four women in the hall.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
According to the pool report, Trump just arrived at the debate hall.-
For those of you just joining us, Donald Trump held a surprise press conference with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault over the years.
Maggie Haberman
Reporter
This is all making Rick Lazio walking over to her podium in the 2000 debate look genteel.Nick Confessore
Reporter
As someone who began his reporting career the year Bill Clinton was impeached, I am really struck by the sense of vertigo in these accusations.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Three of these women’s allegations against Clinton were widely discussed and, in both the proverbial and sometimes the literal sense, litigated at the time, while he was president.Nick Confessore
Reporter
We don’t really have many more facts or answers now than we did then, although we have some. And after his impeachment in the House and acquittal in the Senate, it seemed like a large part of the country wanted to “move on,” as the slogan at the time had it.Nick Confessore
Reporter
But of course, nothing moved on for these women.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Now they have an avenger–a deeply flawed, toxic avenger, who has virtually no moral standing of his own on these issues, but someone who is willing to use his bully pulpit to drag our public discussion back twenty years, like it or not.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Nick, a few thoughts on this.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
There is a lot of complaining about the destruction of cultural mores in the era of Trump, and he has, to be sure, shattered a number of political and social norms.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
That said, the reality is that the most comparable defection by elected officials during a personally-focused scandal – as we are seeing with Trump – was Bill Clinton after the Lewinsky affair was discovered.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
It is easy to forget now, because his popularity went up during the Bush years.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
But at the time, Democrats defected in large numbers.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
It didn’t matter to him, but Democrats were deathly afraid of what the impact would be on the party.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Tim Kaine was among the people who were critical of Bill Clinton.Nick Confessore
Reporter
In fact, I believe Tim Kaine said his behavior was “beneath the dignity of the office.”Nick Confessore
Reporter
And suggested that he believed at the time that Clinton ought to resign.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Bill Clinton just walked into the hall, with a not-pleased look on his face.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
These women who accused Bill Clinton of sex crimes are sitting in the front row of Trump’s campaign seats.Nick Confessore
Reporter
What a tableaux in the debate hall: Trump’s daughters-in-law in a row with Bill Clinton’s accusers.Nick Confessore
Reporter
The basic issue, to continue, is that Bill Clinton is not on the ballot. His wife is.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Thus the focus Trump has put on Hillary Clinton as an “enabler” of her husband’s misconduct.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The way that Trump executed that press event was different from the way his longtime informal adviser Roger Stone, who wrote a book about this topic, had advocated.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
As we saw when she first ran for Senate, that’s not an easy case to make against her. I’ll never forget when Tim Russert asked her directly about this at a debate. She came across as a very sympathetic figure.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Also, if this is at all predictable, Trump will be asked right out about the recording, and he either will or will not refer to the three women in the room. We will know soon.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
For those of you just joining us, Donald Trump held a surprise press conference with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault over the years. Here’s our story.Nick Confessore
Reporter
There’s a thin line between asking Hillary Clinton her opinion of her husband’s conduct and insisting she be held accountable for it.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
No handshake!Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I had heard there was a debate in the Clinton campaign as to what she should do regarding the handshake.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Back to my point about Stone, he had said that Trump should make clear that the issue was these women saying that they were abused and that Hillary Clinton had harassed them. And my understanding was that he had said that if the women endorsed Trump, it would look political.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
They did endorse Trump.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
What was the decision on the handshake? Take it if he offers it to her?Maggie Haberman
Reporter
There hadn’t been a decision, the last time I heard.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Stating the obvious, doing these kinds of events in front of live audience voters like this is tricky. You have to play to a lot of audiences at once.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Back to what’s happening on stage right now:Nick Confessore
Reporter
Clinton was asked a question about setting the right tone for children.Nick Confessore
Reporter
A stagecraft note: Clinton positioned herself so that Trump would be visible behind her. She asked a question of the questioner.Nick Confessore
Reporter
“Are you a teacher?” Appeared to guess correctly.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Top five topics on Facebook just before the debate started, per a press release:Nick Confessore
Reporter
- Trump Tape
- WikiLeaks Release
- Crime & Criminal Justice
- Government Ethics
- Iraq, Syria & ISIS
Adam Nagourney
Reporter
And Anderson Cooper goes in for the kill, asking directly about the tape.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump says he’s apologized to his family and he is “not proud of” his comments.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Anderson reminds the audience that what Trump described was not banter, but sexual assault.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
But also disputes Cooper’s question, which was a statement that his comments were about “sexual assault.”Adam Nagourney
Reporter
He somehow went from talking about the tape to ISIS beheadings.-
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Maggie Haberman
Reporter
“It’s locker-room talk,” Trump says, then tries to pivot to issues.Nick Confessore
Reporter
If you are not watching on TV, the question asked is held below the screen. In this case, while Trump goes on and on about ISIS while a question about his sexual conduct is floating on the screen below him.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Trump does NOT want to talk about this tape; those reports of long apologies seem wrong, so far.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Clinton is saying that she thought long and hard about Trump’s comments, and that they reflect her view that he is not fit for office.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Clinton is not steering away from this topic, which may or may not result in Trump pointing to the women he invited to the hall.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
If he did debate prep, this is one moment he should be ready for.Nick Confessore
Reporter
It appears Clinton wants him to launch.Nick Confessore
Reporter
And she is making the most of the time she has. But she does not sound as confident as she did two weeks ago.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
There is no topic that her aides have a harder time discussing with her than her marriage, as has been the case for 24 years.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump asks to respond, and says: “It’s just words, folks. It’s just words.” He talks about Clinton not bringing jobs to upstate New York, which was a campaign pledge in the 2000 Senate race.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
So far he hasn’t brought up her marriage; I’m sure she’s worried he will. As I recall at the first debate, she started off shaky and got better at the end.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump gets a question from a voter about the Billy Bush recording.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Here we go, folks.Nick Confessore
Reporter
These two moderators are fully focused on getting an answer out of Trump on this. But also they are carefully undermining Trump’s spin.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
And we are nuclear.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump is now talking about Bill Clinton’s accusers, and mentions Kathy Shelton, the 12-year-old rape victim whose accused attacker was represented by Clinton as a court-appointed public defender in 1975.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
There’s applause in the hall for Trump as he calls the Clintons’ actions “disgraceful.”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
We are now just 19 minutes into this debate. A lot more to go now that the nuclear winter is upon us.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Clinton dodging this – getting onto the high road, quoting Michelle Obama: “They go low, we go high.”Nick Confessore
Reporter
She is just ignoring his jab.-
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump Doug Mills/The New York Times Nick Confessore
Reporter
And reminding the audience that Trump is the guy running for president right now.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I’m wondering whether or not she will say what she has in the past about her marriage being troubled, and working through the troubles.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The whole country once again gets to hear who Sidney Blumenthal is, as Trump calls on Clinton to apologize for her campaign starting the birther controversy.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I hate saying stuff 21 minutes in, but this might be the single most negative debate I’ve seen.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump says that if he wins, he will instruct the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Clinton.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
This is enormously galvanizing to a Trump base that deeply dislikes Clinton.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
It will not help him win over new voters, most likely.Nick Confessore
Reporter
I wonder if Clinton practiced the expression on her face right now.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Nick, I was wondering the same thing. You have to assume yes.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
But to the extent that his campaign is really crippled right now, he doesn’t seem to care.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Clinton says it’s good that Trump isn’t in charge of the laws in the country, and Trump responds, “Because you’d be in jail.”Nick Confessore
Reporter
That’s a pretty good comeback. But also false.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Unless Trump was planning on overruling his own F.B.I.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Jonathan Martin, our colleague, wrote a piece in 2011, when Trump considered running for president against President Obama, describing Trump as a stand-in for G.O.P. base voters who wanted to see someone take the fight to Obama.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
There are plenty of base Republican voters who want to see him take the fight to Clinton.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And he is.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
But you can’t win an election with just base Republican voters any more.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump wandered a bit earlier, but he is a lot more cogent now.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The other thing I wonder about is this – Clinton’s campaign has gotten very used to her being seen as a sympathetic figure when someone goes after her on issues related to Bill Clinton, primarily after the Lewinsky scandal.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
But I don’t know that it rallies the same number of supporters to her side anymore, after so many decades.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump is really on the attack over the emails, in a way that he did not in the last debate.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Yes, Adam, he is doing what he should have done in the first debate.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And he actually knows the details this time. This is what he prepared for.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump is now attacking Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz.Nick Confessore
Reporter
There’s the smackdown: Clinton says “anything to avoid talking about” how his campaign is exploding.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump just accused the moderators of not bringing up the emails. Not true. Raddatz actually asked a question about it.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Yes, a question was the first time it was raised.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The visuals of the debate right now are Trump just over Clinton’s right shoulder, behind her.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Clinton now outlining her plan to tweak Obamacare, walking that fine line between explaining all the things she likes about the program while empathizing with the ways it has gone haywire.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Trump using Bernie Sanders against Clinton. Smart.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump’s problem is that he is just not fluent enough in policy to make these attacks land the way they are meant to.Nick Confessore
Reporter
“Once you get rid of those lines” – referring to state borders, which is a reference to a conservative alternative to Obamacare, but just sounds like word salad.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump: “You’re right about Islamophobia – and that’s a shame.”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And then he moves on to another topic.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump is basically running his primary campaign right now.-
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Doug Mills/The New York Times Nick Confessore
Reporter
This is the reductio ad absurdum of the “call it by its name” argument. Trump has no plan to beat ISIS. He goes around and around in circles about it. But he says he is better equipped to beat terrorism by the simple expedient of saying the words “radical Islamic terrorism.”Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I assume he’d rather talk about that than any of this sexual/marital stuff, either involving him or the Clintons.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump calls Captain Khan “an American hero” and says he would be alive if he were president at the time.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I have no idea whom this debate is going to compel to come out and vote.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump says his Muslim ban has “morphed into extreme vetting.”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And he won’t answer the question as to whether it stands, yes or no.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump says that Syrian refugees being settled here are people we don’t know anything about. Not true. They are among the most heavily vetted immigrants in America.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton says that she has no intention of letting dangerous people into the country, but argues that Americans need to have a heart.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
This might be the toughest debate of the year for moderators. Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz doing well so far.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Would be willing to bet a solid sum that Trump got the attack-the-moderators push from Gingrich.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
That said, Gingrich has been emphatic with Trump that he should not bring up the Clinton and women issue.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I’m not sure attacking the moderators works as well in a general-election debate as it does in a Republican primary debate.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Easy to get a crowd at a Republican primary debate to dump on the moderators, regardless of which candidate they back.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Here it just makes him look petulant.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton: “What Donald Trump says about Muslims is used to recruit fighters.”Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump and Clinton clash again over support of the Iraq war. Trump says he was always against it, despite calling for invasion in 2002.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I’m not sure Trump is necessarily playing to win anymore.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
But what this all might succeed in doing is depressing Clinton’s turnout because there is still an enthusiasm gap for her and this is a toxic campaign cycle all around.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump says Clinton’s judgment is so bad that she should not be president.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Tough one for Clinton on her leaked emails that showed her saying it was important for politicians to have a public and private position on issues.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Good point on depressing Clinton’s turnout, but I’m not sure Trump is that strategic. Also, Trump over the past week has done more to energize Clinton’s base than anything Clinton could ever do.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton takes the question and turns it into an answer about Russian hacking, which Trump called for this summer, as a way to examine Clinton’s emails.Nick Confessore
Reporter
I’m surprised the moderators highlighted the public/private quote from that hack.-
Collette McLafferty, a Jill Stein supporter now leaning toward Hillary Clinton, with her friend Tony Tino, who is undecided, watching the debate at Precious Metal, a bar in Brooklyn. Katherine Taylor for The New York Times Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton suggests that the Russians want Trump elected because he has praised Putin and wants to do business in Moscow.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
“So ridiculous,” Trump says.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump: “Now she’s blaming the lie on the late, great Abraham Lincoln.” Some laughs in the audience.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
“Maybe there is no hacking,” Trump says.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
“I know nothing about Russia,” Trump says.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump really just took what could have been a terrific hit on Clinton over her paid speeches and dropped it.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump, who will not release his taxes, says that the fact that he got the post office development in Washington is evidence of his big balance sheet.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
That was one of Trump’s best openings and one his campaign had prepped him for.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The WikiLeaks paid speeches excerpts would have been potentially lethal to Clinton during the primary.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Coming now they could still be problematic in terms of enthusiasm for her among Sanders voters.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
But Trump could have driven it home and instead went into a diversion.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump is talking about getting rid of the carried interest tax loophole as a way to ensure tax fairness. He now mentions his own tax plan, which makes up for the loss of that loophole with steep reductions on capital gains and earned income.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
We are getting into the free association part of the debate, people. This happened 35 minutes in last time.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Adam, I have a different take than you here. I feel like with the assault allegations out of the way, Trump is on steadier ground.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Or at least, on more advantageous ground, such as it exists.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I thought that until five minutes ago.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I did too, until that last answer.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
He really had the emails answer down pat. Knew the facts, was prepared for how to answer it.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Nailed it on emails the way he nailed it on trade last time. Just nailed it.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton: “Well everything you’ve heard from Donald just now is not true. I’m sorry I have to keep saying this, but he lives in an alternative reality.”Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton reminds the audience that she voted to close tax loopholes as a senator.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Every time I think I know which way this debate is going, it starts going the other way.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton is hitting Trump hard on last week’s controversy, that Trump may not have paid federal income taxes for 18 years.Nick Confessore
Reporter
I think Trump just answered the question we’ve all been asking this past week, on his taxes.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
“Of course I do,” Trump says when asked if he used the $916 million loss to avoid paying taxes.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Did Trump just acknowledge that he used the $916 billion loss to pay no taxes? Justified it by saying Clinton’s friends did it.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump tries to paint Clinton as the Wall Street patron, arguing that she wants to keep carried interest.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump: “With her, it’s all talk and no action.”Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I don’t know how much prep Trump did, but it seems like he thought more about what he should be talking about in a debate. He has a few very effective lines of debate.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton was ready to respond to the attack that she’s done nothing for 30 years. Here’s everything she’s done.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Two things were different, before the Washington Post report on Friday of the recording of Trump – Trump had spent the week actually doing more focused prep, with a smaller group.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And Chris Christie led the prep, and was described as much more effective than Rudy Giuliani had been when he led it.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
He’s giving a more conventional debate performance than last time. That’s a good thing.Nick Confessore
Reporter
On all the basics of tradecraft, he is doing better than before. I’m not sure it’s better than Clinton.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump is also a fairly quick learner in terms of certain stylistic aspects of politics. To Alan’s point, being able to pace is helpful to her.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
By the way, this is not what I would call a typical town hall debate. There’s not that much interaction with the audience, at least compared with what I remember from past campaigns.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
It does feel very moderator-controlled.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump looks very bored by her long policy answers. Squinting, looking down.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump says Russia has gone “wild” with their nuclear program. “Not good!”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
This bit about Syria and Clinton’s influence is putting Clinton in a tough spot – she did not share Obama’s view on Syria when she was in the administration, but in order to say that, she’d have to criticize Obama, whom she badly needs right now.-
Some background on the women Trump brought to the debate, who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault.
Donald Trump Featured 3 Women Who Accused Bill Clinton of Sexual Assault
Donald J. Trump held a surprise news conference shortly before the second presidential debate on Sunday with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault or sexual harassment in the past.
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Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump says that he doesn’t like Assad, but that Assad, Russia and Iran are all killing ISIS.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump says he disagrees with Pence on handling Syria.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Worse, Alan. Trump just said he hasn’t spoken with his running mate about Pence’s proposals for Syria.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Clinton would have been smart to hold out for two-hour debates.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump says Aleppo “basically has fallen.” The moderator seems to be trying to lead him into a Gary Johnson moment.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Raddatz pushing Trump to get more specific on ISIS.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton is looking frustrated as Trump gobbles up talking time.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Twenty minutes to go. Is it possible the whole episode leading up to this debate – the Trump recording and bringing in the women – will not be the takeaway of the debate? And if that is the case, will that help Trump move beyond it?-
People at a debate watch party at a Holiday Inn in San Francisco. Jim Wilson/The New York Times Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Adam, before the debate started, a friend emailed me a link to a story about how explosives can help put out a raging fire.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And that analogy was exactly what Trump did.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton is asked what she would do different from Obama on Syria, and she doesn’t give a clear answer.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
She does say that she would specifically target the leader of ISIS, and she hits Trump for saying he knows more than the generals about ISIS.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
The candidates are talking about a lot of different things; laying out a lot of disagreements on, um, issues.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump is complaining to the moderators, saying that Clinton went more than a minute over without being stopped. He says that he gets stopped for going a second over.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump is asked by an audience member if he can be a president for all Americans. He says of course and notes that Clinton called half of his supporters “deplorable.”Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump calls Clinton a liar on T.P.P.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
T.P.P. is an issue on which Clinton is vulnerable.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Trump is doing the classic “outsider” frame in presidential politics – whatever you don’t like can be attributed to the more experienced candidate.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Nick, it is the argument that Steve Bannon, his campaign C.E.O., has pushed for aggressively – be the “change” agent.Nick Confessore
Reporter
And in general, it is the more successful frame in American presidential elections. In general.-
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Doug Mills/The New York Times Nick Confessore
Reporter
Clinton has her own version of the change agent argument, as the first female nominee.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton says that she gets letters from voters who are worried they would not have a place in Trump’s America.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Well, it’s certainly the argument after two terms of the same party, which is what Clinton would be, in terms of Trump being the “change” candidate.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Something to note here: Trump’s accusers, and Bill Clinton’s, have not come up again since the beginning.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
On her comment on “deplorables” – what she called many of Trump’s supporters – Mrs. Clinton says: “My argument is not with his supporters. It’s with him.”Nick Confessore
Reporter
I wonder if the moderators’ decision to plunge right into the recording at the beginning of the debate ended up helping Trump, in a way.Nick Confessore
Reporter
They both took their best shots. And neither wants to talk about it again, it seems.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump: “Believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart.”-
Mrs. Clinton answering a question during the debate. Doug Mills/The New York Times Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump just says it wasn’t “check out the sex tape” when he tweeted about Alicia Machado. That is in fact what he said.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
“Tweeting happens to be a modern-day form of communication,” Trump says of his late-night burst on Twitter last week criticizing a former Miss Universe.-
Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton brings up her husband’s record as president. Is she goading Trump into attacking Bill Clinton?Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The candidates were just yelling over each other.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I go back to an earlier point – who is going to be inspired to go out and vote after this?Nick Confessore
Reporter
Final question of night: Supreme Court justices.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I’m not sure this debate changes much in terms of the course of the election. Just an early guess. Too much other stuff going on this past week.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I think this feels like a more evenly matched debate than the last one.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Adam, amazing that there have been two or three news events in the last week that are bigger than a presidential debate. But you’re right.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Shocking, right, Nick? This debate almost feels like an afterthought, just as something that influences the outcome of the race.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Audience numbers and polling may prove us wrong.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Nick, that is a great point about the events swallowing the debate.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
A good follow up here would be to ask Trump to name some of the judges on his list.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I bet the audience numbers will be huge, maybe even bigger than the last one – because of the recording.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Well, that helps Trump to some extent, if you are right.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump says that by the end of the election he will have spent more than $100 million of his own money on the campaign.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Trump demands to know why Clinton isn’t putting in some of her own money given that she got wealthy post-White House.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump: “Hillary Clinton wants to put all the miners out of business.”-
Attendees watching Mr. Trump speak during a party for the presidential debate at the Athens County Republican headquarters in Ohio. Ty Wright for The New York Times Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Surprisingly adept use of briefing materials by Trump with the self-funding and personal wealth comments.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Totally agree Maggie. Trump was able to get at the disconnect effect of the Clinton’s personal wealth, which I think they have been somewhat blind to. In their minds, giving speeches and writing books (two big sources of their wealth, though not the only ones) are basically pretty clean ways of earning a living after a career and public service. But as we saw during the primaries, there are many voters who don’t agree.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
The Clintons’ view of themselves has not always matched voters’ views of them.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And on the topic of the paid speeches, she is vulnerable.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
The disconnect gets bigger as they get older and the electorate gets younger.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I guess my bottom-line question on this debate is did Trump do anything here to move beyond the Republican base – or I should say, his Republican base? I suspect not.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton moves from energy question to climate.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
One more audience question. We’re in overtime.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
And they are asked to name something positive that they respect about the other.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Yes, and I bet they both name their kids.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Called it!Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Clinton: “I certainly will.” She says: “I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and devoted, and I think that says a lot about Donald.”-
Patrons watching the presidential debate at Union Hall, a bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Joshua Bright for The New York Times Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Will he say Chelsea?Alan Rappeport
Reporter
He can’t say Bill.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Here’s another question: What’s better for other Republicans, a debate performance so bad that more of them can get off the Trump Train, or just good enough to lock them in the train cars?Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump: “Well, I consider her statement about my children to be a very nice compliment. I dont know if it was meant as a compliment.”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
This is a well-prepped answer by Trump.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Trump: “I will say this about Hillary, she doesn’t quit, she doesn’t give up.”Maggie Haberman
Reporter
She went with the more obvious one – praising his kids.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
Did he anticipate the question or did he take advantage of those two minutes to think it up?Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I think he might have just thought it up - and Adam, do recall that he had the Clintons at his wedding.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
And he used to praise her. He may have just been referring to how he felt.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
And they end with a handshake, which they did not do at the beginning.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
Kind of a nice ending.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Well, we began with Trump saying he wanted to put Clinton in jail and ended with him praising her fighting spirit.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Who says we can’t have nice things?Nick Confessore
Reporter
(Just kidding, we can’t have nice things.)Adam Nagourney
Reporter
A Republican just texted me to say Democrats should be happy – that Trump did enough to stop Republicans from trying to force him to step down.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I think neither side can decide precisely what to make of this debate, Adam.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Republicans who want to keep Trump viable to help their efforts to hold the Senate are rooting for his performance.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
Democrats think she did well enough to basically freeze this in place, although they concede that she didn’t have a great night.-
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump shaking hands after the debate. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Maggie Haberman
Reporter
We have said in this space before that Clinton does very poorly sitting on a lead. I think Trump has a similar issue: He performs better when the chips are way, way, way down.Nick Confessore
Reporter
It is a little weird that the most natural and relaxed Trump sounded at this debate was on the last question, when he was praising Clinton.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Maybe I am confusing “natural” with “not cranked up.”Adam Nagourney
Reporter
I think that is true on Trump. I’m not sure he did enough to deal with the recording. He didn’t even go as far as he went into the apology he did.Maggie Haberman
Reporter
I think that’s right on the tape. I don’t think the debate stops the discussion about it. I do think his answer about being sorry and apologizing to his wife will prevent G.O.P. leaders from openly cutting bait with him.Adam Nagourney
Reporter
The main thing I would have wanted if I were Trump would be to move on beyond the tape. Next 12 hours will tell.Nick Confessore
Reporter
There’s no question Trump “did better” in this debate, in the following ways: More on message, more precise, more adept at trying to control the flow and put Clinton the defensive. But that’s a relative measure.Nick Confessore
Reporter
I think Clinton was visibly tense early on, when her husband was in the debate frame, and recovered her old confidence as the night progressed. But it was not the rope-a-dope we saw two weeks ago – just a practiced debater hitting her points, getting the details right.Nick Confessore
Reporter
Democrats will try to capitalize on Trump’s admission that he used his huge operating losses to avoid paying income taxes – the only trick is, they were using that attack anyway, even before he admitted it.Nick Confessore
Reporter
So I don’t know if I saw a game-changing moment tonight.Nick Confessore
Reporter
What’s going to be interesting is seeing if Clinton in the next few days can, in effect, take us back to Saturday. And whether Republicans will aid her by continuing to desert Trump.Nick Confessore
Reporter
It’s equally possible that this debate, and Trump’s improvement, make that more difficult.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
I’m very interested to see, if this is considered a win for Trump, what all the Republicans who jumped ship say. Presumably they cannot get back on board.Alan Rappeport
Reporter
That’s a wrap. Thanks for joining us. We will be back on October 19 for the third and final presidential debate.
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