Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton took the stage Wednesday night in Las Vegas for the final presidential debate, moderated by Fox news television anchor Chris Wallace. Assistant news editor Megan Rodriguez gives her five takeaways from Wednesday’s debate.
1. Audience control keeps focus on the policies
Chris Wallace started Wednesday’s debate by discouraging the audience from commentary during the debate, which helped keep the focus on policy. Wallace kept this rule and asked for silence when the crowd laughed or cheered, which helped keep the focus on the debate rather than side drama.
2. Everything on the table
Wallace kept questions focused on issues that divide Trump and Clinton, forcing candidates to answer tough questions about the Second Amendment, abortion and immigration to name a few. Even the government debt, which had not yet been discussed before Wednesday night’s debate, was brought up.
3. Chris Wallace does what he can to keep the debate on track
Wallace continued to redirect the debate, interrupting both candidates various times when they started to get off topic. Despite his efforts Trump and Clinton did have moments where they nearly shouted over each other and over Wallace to argue about off topic matters.
4. Loss of respect between candidates distracts from debate
For the second time Trump and Clinton began the debate without shaking hands, an action that will surely be discussed as it was after the last debate. The pattern of arguable disrespect continued throughout the debate with both candidates taking the opportunity to attack the other’s character.
5. Unprepared closing statements allows for genuineness
Even though neither candidate prepared closing statements, each were asked to give one, which allowed for both Trump and Clinton highlight what they genuinely believe is most important. Clinton used this as an opportunity to call out Americans, making her campaign personal by promising to make the economy fair to them. Trump began his statement by disregarding Clinton and then focusing on protecting citizens from violence.
