Welcome to gulfnews.com’s live coverage of the second US presidential debate, taking place at Washington University in St Louis. Follow us for build-up, a blow-by-blow account, and reaction to what promises to be a fired-up exchange between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The debate begins at 5am UAE time and it promises to be one not to miss …  

Trump versus Clinton, second debate in pictures

 

Trump calls her 'devil'; Clinton calls him abuser of women

A defiant Donald Trump on Sunday night said Hillary Clinton would go to jail if he were president and attacked her husband for his treatment of women in a vicious presidential debate less than a month before the US election.

Their debate, the second of three before the Nov. 8 vote, was remarkable for the brutal nature of the exchanges between Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Clinton, his Democratic rival.

He called her a "devil" who repeatedly lies, someone with tremendous hate in her heart. She called him an abuser of women.

There was a palpable sense of mutual contempt as they stood on stage, refusing to shake hands at the start. Through it all, Trump, 70, and Clinton, 68, both landed punches as they clashed over taxes, healthcare, U.S. policy in the Syria civil war and Clinton's comments that half of Trump's supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables”. 

7.53am

Poll shows Hillary won, Trump campaign claims victory

A CNN/ORC instant poll of debate watchers has reported Hillary Clinton winning 57% to 34%; but 63% said Donald Trump did better than they expected. Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, however, said Trump “clearly won the debate” and Clinton “wasn't very well prepared”.

6.53am

Yes, they did shake hands!

6.43am

Early analysis

Donald Trump struggles with specifics. He failed to flesh out any kind of policy in any of the questions he was asked, on health care, the Middle East, immigration and others. Clinton gave specifics when asked on all of the above and more. Whether Americans notice this is another thing.

6.38am

'Say something positive about each other'

Great question from a member of the audience asking the candidates to say something positive about each other. Here's how they responded:

 

6.33am

Analysis: Trump fights fire with fire over leaked video

AFP

Donald Trump dismissed his predatory remarks about groping women as "locker room talk," and took a swipe at Hillary Clinton's husband Bill over past sexual misconduct in a fiery second US presidential debate on Sunday.

The Democrat Hillary Clinton, facing a deeply wounded candidate with one month to go before Election Day, pushed back by saying Trump's lewd comments, caught on a hot mic, merely showed his true self.

With tens of millions of Americans tuning in for the televised showdown, the Republican nominee may have been expected to show contrition as he seeks to move beyond the crisis triggered by the tape's release.

Instead Trump levelled a blunt attack at former president Clinton - present in the audience - asserting that he has a history of abusing women, and inviting several of his accusers to attend the debate.

"If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse," Trump insisted. "Mine are words, his was action," he said, claiming that there has "never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that's been so abusive to women."

Clinton refused to take the bait, saying she took the advice that "when they go low, you go high."

In the tense opening minutes of the showdown, Trump also clashed with Clinton on her private use of emails while secretary of state, warning that if he becomes president he will order the Justice Department to launch a special investigation into the issue.

When Clinton responded that it was "awfully good" that someone with Trump's temperament was not leading the nation, he shot back: "Because you'd be in jail."

Trump is facing a make-or-break moment after his lewd boasts, which he made in 2005 and which became public Friday, brought sweeping condemnation from within his own party and calls for him to step aside.

Pressed by the debate moderator who asserted that he had bragged of sexually assaulting women, the billionaire Republican lashed out:

"Certainly I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk."

Trump's Democratic rival fired back that he has spent much of his presidential campaign denigrating women and minorities.

"This is who Donald Trump is, and the question for us, the question our country must answer is that this is not who we are," she said.

'Desperation'

With his campaign in chaos, Trump has stepped up his attacks on former president Clinton, asserting that he has a history of abusing women.

In an extraordinary step, Trump convened a press event just moments before the debate that included several women who accuse him of sexual harassment and rape.

Introduced by Trump as "very courageous women," his invited speakers included Paula Jones, a former government employee in Arkansas who sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment, and Juanita Broaddrick, also of Arkansas, who claims that Clinton raped her in 1978.

The debate came at perhaps the most pivotal moment of the 2016 presidential race, with Trump needing a dramatic boost if he is to claw back ground against Clinton, who has surged in the polls since their first debate on September 26.

Clinton's campaign has dismissed Trump's sensational targeting of Bill Clinton as an "act of desperation."

"Republicans are leaving you," Clinton told him on the debate stage, saying his campaign was "exploding."

6.30am

'President for the people'

6.25am

Trump vows to have Clinton jailed over emails

Reuters

A defiant Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed as "locker room talk" a controversy over a video in which he made obscene comments about groping women and said, if he won the White House, he would put Hillary Clinton in jail for operating a private email server while U.S. secretary of state.

In a contentious town-hall debate, Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, said he would appoint a special prosecutor to look into his Democratic rival's email use because she had endangered national security during her tenure as President Barack Obama's chief diplomat from 2009-2013.

6.20am

Clinton on Syria

Hillary Clinton backs the establishment of safe zones in Syria, along with efforts to investigate Russia for war crimes committed in support of President Bashar Al Assad.

Clinton said she supports efforts to probe "war crimes committed by the Syrians and the Russians and try to hold them accountable."

6.14am

Clinton: It's ok to have public and private positions

Hillary Clinton is saying it's OK to have a public and private position on an issue because Abraham Lincoln did.

She is responding to a question about an email released by a WikiLeaks last week in which Clinton said it's acceptable for a president to project differing positions. She was asked whether that's "two-faced."

She says Lincoln did whatever he could to get the 13th Amendment passed, allowing emancipation of the slaves, by lawmakers who did not support African-American equality.

Clinton says: "I was making the point it is hard sometimes to get the Congress to do what you want them to do. That was a great display of presidential leadership."

Trump began his response to Clinton's statement by rolling his eyes, and says, "Now she's blaming the late, great Abraham Lincoln."

6.10am

Ugly clashes sign of things to come

Washington Post

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton clashed in deeply personal terms in the second presidential debate on Sunday night (Monday morning UAE), accusing each other of mistreating women, and signaling that the final month of the race would be an extraordinarily ugly political brawl.

6.01am

Did you avoid tax Donald? Of course I did

Trump appears to admit to not paying tax since 1995.

He says he was exploiting a loophole Clinton allowed to remain in place. He also says many of Clinton's donors exploit the same loophole.

5.54am

Clinton accuses Russia

Hillary Clinton has accused Russia of using hacking to tilt the election in favour of Trump. She suggests Trump has business dealings there, which he denies.

He says he has no dealings with Russia and doesn't like Putin. He also says he pays hundreds of millions of dollars in tax.

5.44am

Clashing on Muslims

Clinton states 'the US is not at war with Islam' as she outlines her plan for 'an America where everyone is welcome'.

Trump is pressed on his banning Muslims rhetoric from earlier in his campaign. He states: "That has morphed into extreme vetting." Trump's policies are morphing now.

5.37am

Clashing on Obamacare

Clinton outlines her plan to tweak the existing health care system, known as Obamacrae, which has fallen victim to rising premiums. Trump says he wants to get rid of it altogether.

They are very much on to policy now. The slaggin match about leaked videos, emails and Bill Clinton's past appears to have been put to bed for the time being.

5.30am

'I'm a gentleman, go ahead'

It is going so low they can't decide who is going to speak first. Trump tries to paint a picture of everyone being against him: 'It's three against one'. He is disappointed the questioning on Clinton's emails is brought to an end.

Then there's a question on health care. Trump and Clinton both try to answer. Trump says: "I'm a gentleman, go ahead."

5.22am

It is getting ugly

We thought it would get ugly, and it's happening very early.

Trump responds to the probing about his attitude towards women by bringing up Bill Clinton's accusers. He is now talking about Clinton's emails.

He now says: "If I win. I will get a special prosecutor to investigate you."

Trump is coming out fighting. Is it going to work?

5.16am

Clinton: The video is who Donald Trump is

5.10am

Trump challenged on video

'I'm not proud of it, but this was locker room talk'. Trump tries to switch answer to Daesh after getting a question on the video released on Friday. "I will take care of Isis [Daesh]," he said."

"No I have not" he says, when asked about the tape.

5.07am

First question

The first question is on whether the last debate was a good example to children. Clinton is straight into her flow, having won the coin toss. A long answer on education. 'I will work with every Americans'. 'I want to heal our country and bring it together'.

5.05am

On stage

Clinton and Trump are on stage and the debate will begin with a question from the public.

4.58am

Hall is filling up

The debate hall is full, including the four women who just appeared alongside Trump is a press conference. The second debate is just a few minutes away...



Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathy Shelton sit before the town hall debate at Washington University.

4.50am

Bush suspended by NBC News

Los Angleles Times

"Today" co-anchor Billy Bush has been suspended by NBC News in light of his role in the leaked recording of his lewd conversation with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

"I know we've all been deeply troubled by the revelations of the past 48 hours," said "Today" executive producer Noah Oppenheim in a memo to staffers. "Let me be clear – there is simply no excuse for Billy's language and behaviour on that tape, NBC has decided to suspend Billy, pending further review of this matter."

In the leaked video Bush is heard laughing and egging Trump on, even as the mogul revealed his attempt to seduce Bush's "Access Hollywood" co-host Nancy O'Dell. Bush delivered his own apology Friday.

"Obviously I'm embarrassed and ashamed," Bush, 44, said in a statement issued by NBC News. "It's no excuse, but this happened 11 years ago _ I was younger, less mature, and acted foolishly in playing along. I'm very sorry."

4.35am

Clinton responds to Trump press conference

Hillary Clinton has taken to Twitter to respond to the Donald Trump press conference. She has tweeted a video of First Lady Michelle Obama's famous quote: "When they go low, we go high."

4.20am

'Bill Clinton raped me'

Washington Post

About an hour and a half before the debate began, Trump hosted a short - and highly unusual - news conference with four women, all of whom said they had been mistreated by the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton or her husband, former President Bill Clinton. One of the women was Paula Jones, who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment in the early 1990s. Another was Juanita Broaddrick, who at the news conference said Bill Clinton had raped her in 1978.



Donald Trump looks on as Juanita Broaddrick speaks.

"Mr. Trump may have said some bad words," Broaddrick said. "But Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me. I don't think there's any comparison."

Broaddrick has made such statements before, but it has never been criminally litigated, and the Clintons deny the accusations.

As Trump began and ended the news conference, reporters shouted questions related to a 2005 video that emerged on Friday, in which Trump spoke about kissing and groping women he met. "Mr. Trump does your star power allow you to touch women without their consent?" a reporter asked. Trump ignored the questions, then left.

4.12am

It's going to get ugly

If you were sat at home wondering if Trump was going to mention Bill Clinton's past in this debate, it seems you have your answer. This looks like one last desperate throw of the dice from the Republican. This debate is going to get ugly.

4am

Trump hold press conference will Bill Clinton accusers

AP



Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, centre, sits with, from right, Paula Jones, Kathy Shelton, Juanita Broaddrick, and Kathleen Willey.

Before the second presidential debate, Donald Trump has appeared at an event with women who accused former President Bill Clinton of rape and unwanted sexual advances.

The Republican nominee did not take questions as he appeared with Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey.

Jones is a former Arkansas state worker who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton in 1994 for allegedly exposing himself to her in a Little Rock hotel room.

She says of Trump, "He's going to make America great again."

Also at the event was Kathy Shelton, who was a raped as a 12-year-old. Hillary Clinton represented the suspect as a public defender.

3.40am

Before you have guests ...
... always put the vacuum round

The organisers at Washington University in St Louis were clearly brought up well, as they've decided to put the vacuum round one last time before the debate.



Preparations are made before the town hall debate at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.

This also gives us a glimpse of the stools being used for the town hall-style debate. Expect to see the candidates walking around the stage and half of the questions to come from selected members of the public. This is designed to expose how the candidates can think on their feet and switch between aggressive and friendly replies. Should be interesting.

3.10am

Obama speaks out on Trump tape

President Barack Obama said Donald Trump's vulgar comments about women offer additional evidence of why the Republican candidate isn't fit to be his successor in the White House.



President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a senatorial campaign fundraiser event for Representative Tammy Duckworth in Chicago, Illinois.

"It tells you that he's insecure enough that he pumps himself up by putting other people down,'' Obama said Sunday at a Chicago fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth. "It tells you he doesn't care much for the basic values of civility or respect."

In his first public comment since the Friday release of a 2005 video in which Trump boasted about groping women, Obama linked the comments to others made by the Republican in the course of the campaign: "Demeaning women, degrading women, but also minorities, immigrants, people of other faiths, mocking the disabled."

Obama's comments came after Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday in a Twitter message that the Republican presidential nominee's conduct was worse than simply lewd. "The words are demeaning,'' Biden wrote.  "Such behaviour is an abuse of power. It's not lewd. It's sexual assault.''

2.55am

De Niro in Dubai

You may have heard Robert de Niro's forthright opinions about Donald Trump last week, calling him a mutt and a dog, among other choice words, in a video interview.

Well, De Niro was in Dubai on Sunday, and the Hollywood star was in no mood to take his words back.



De Niro in Dubai on Sunday.

Asked what question he would put to Trump, De Niro said: “I don’t even know what kind of question to ask him, because he’s so stupid. There’s nothing to talk about … I’d love to punch him in the face.”

Read more of the interview here.

2.20am

Has this man got it right?



A man with a placard outside the debate hall in St Louis, Missouri.

You usually get some pretty funny placards at these debates and given the nature of Donald Trump's rant towards women this week, many of them are unusable ahead of the second verbal battle.

But this is our favourite so far. A man who would rather vote for a meteor hitting earth than Trump or Clinton. Do that not sum this presidential campaign up?

1.46am

Hillary has arrived



Hillary Clinton arrives in St Louis. Credit: Reuters.

Here's Hillary Clinton arriving at the airport in St Louis earlier on Sunday.

It seems a very long time ago we were talking about Clinton's health ahead of the first debate. She seems to have put her bout of pneumonia behind her after an accomplished performance first time around.

This time, the spotlight is on Trump and where he can salvage anything from a campaign currently in tatters.

1.25am

Trump comes out fighting

New York Times

Trump posted a Twitter message Sunday morning highlighting a new interview with a woman who claimed in 1999 that she was raped by Bill Clinton, signaling that he may bring up the accusation at Sunday's debate in an effort to counter criticism after the release of a video showing him speaking of women in vulgar sexual terms.

In a video clip of the interview, which runs for about 8 1/2 minutes and was posted as an exclusive on Breitbart News, the website that was run by Steve Bannon before he became Trump's chief strategist, the woman, Juanita Broaddrick, recounts a story that was first televised in an interview with the NBC newsmagazine show "Dateline," several months after impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton had begun.

Trump's promotion of the video followed the Friday release of a recording from 2005 in which Trump made vulgar sexual comments, causing many prominent Republicans to say they could not support his candidacy and sending his campaign into a tailspin.

Broaddrick has said that the rape occurred in an Arkansas hotel room in 1978. Years later, she told FBI investigators working on behalf of the former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr that Clinton had raped her, recanting an affidavit in which she said that the incident had not taken place.

At the end of the video that was published Sunday morning, Broaddrick accuses Hillary Clinton of being a knowing enabler of her husband.

She says that Clinton had at first thanked her kindly for helping with her husband's campaign for governor, before changing her attitude, and "with this very angry look on her face" asking Broaddrick if she understood the effect of her actions.

"And that frightened me," Broaddrick says.

Aaron Klein, the Breitbart reporter who interviewed Broaddrick, asks her if she thinks Clinton knew what Broaddrick says she had experienced.

"At that moment, and I have to go by what I felt then and the look that she gave me, I felt like she knew," Broaddrick says. "And that she was telling me to keep quiet."

About an hour after he posted the video, Trump's mood seemed bolstered at the effect that the clip had on his supporters, whose messages of encouragement he had been steadily posting.

"So many self-righteous hypocrites," he wrote about his Republican critics in another Twitter post. "Watch their poll numbers – and elections – go down!"

1.10am

The format

The second debate will run from 5am to 6.30pm UAE time from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.

The biggest difference from the first debate is the town hall format, which will see half of the questions posed by carefully selected  members of the public.

The town hall setting is designed to be more personal, with the candidates sat in chairs and getting to their feet to speak, with freedom to walk around the stage.

We also have co-moderators this time, in the shape of CNN's Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz from ABC News. They will pose the other half of the questions, and will have to be on their toes when you consider the stick Lester Holt came in for after his moderating effort in the first debate.

For Trump's part, he calls CNN the 'Clinton News Network', so you can imagine how delighted he is to have them represented on the moderation panel. 

Facebook Live, Twitter and Snapchat will stream the debate online.

12.50am

Debate preview: Campaign chaos as Trump and Clinton collide

AFP

Washington: Donald Trump headed into a crucial debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton on Sunday with his White House hopes in peril and the Republican party in chaos over his lewd boasts about groping women.

With the US election less than a month away, Republican lawmakers and governors abandoned Trump in droves, despite a rare televised apology by the candidate, whose sexually aggressive remarks were caught on a live mike in 2005.

Trump himself was defiant, tweeting: "So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers – and elections – go down!"

But even his surrogates went to ground, leaving former New York mayor Rudolf Giuliani as the billionaire's lone defender on Sunday television talk shows.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Preibus both backed out of scheduled television appearances ahead of the debate in St. Louis, Missouri.

Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, also suspended his campaign appearances after declaring on Saturday that he did not condone and "cannot defend" the Republican standard-bearer.

The scandal – just the latest involving his treatment of women – could not come at a worse time for Trump, who has taken a beating in the polls since his sloppy performance in the first presidential debate September 29.

An average of national polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com has Clinton in the lead by 4.5 percentage points.

National media, meanwhile, have dug up the candidate's past behaviour, including agreeing with an interviewer that his daughter Ivanka was a "piece of ass". In a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, Trump also said he preferred leaving women over a certain age.

"What is it at 35? It's called check-out time," he quips.

Debate with a twist

The two candidates face off starting at 9pm (5am Monday UAE) Washington University in St Louis, with the added twist that this time they will take questions from the audience in a town hall-style forum.

"He's as prepared as he's ever been and he's all ready for the debate tonight," Giuliani said on NBC's Meet the Press.

"He obviously, you know, feels very bad about what he's said. He apologized for it, will probably do it again. What he'd like to do is move onto the issues that are facing the American people."

How much the "elephant in the room," as Republican House speaker Paul Ryan referred to the tape on Saturday, dominates the debate is an open question.

Giuliani warned that Trump could well go after Clinton's past marital troubles with her husband Bill, the former president.

"I do believe there's a possibility he'll talk about Hillary Clinton's situation if it gets to that. I don't think he prefers to do that. But I think he will."

Tim Kaine, Clinton's running mate, suggested that while audience members would have questions about Trump's treatment of women, the former secretary of state intended to stick to basic issues like the economy and national security.

"If Donald wants to talk about something other than what voters want to talk about, that's his choice," Kaine said on CNN's State of the Union show. "But I suspect that Hillary Clinton is going to talk about the things that voters really care about."

Clinton may also have to worry about a WikiLeaks disclosure of excerpts from private speeches she gave to major banks in 2013 and 2014.

Although overshadowed by the Trump tape, they show she expressed views in favor of open trade and Wall Street self-regulation to those audiences that are at odds with her positions as a candidate.

John Podesta, a Clinton adviser from whose email account the excerpts were hacked, insisted there were taken out of context.

"They are not diametrically opposed," he said on Fox News Sunday. "Again, you can pull a few words out of context, but what he said on this campaign trail is she'll be tough on Wall Street. That's exactly what she'll do."

Republican breach

Even a winning performance by Trump, however, seems unlikely to mend the deep breach he has opened in the Republican party, alarmed about the scandal's fallout in other down-ballot races.

Notable defectors included Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, who said Trump's "demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy."

The New York Times reported that by late Saturday 36 Republican members of Congress and governors had disavowed Trump's candidacy.

Some leading Republicans called on Trump to quit the race, but he vowed he would never do that and legal experts said removing him from the top of the ticket would be extremely difficult.

Trump predicted Saturday that the controversy would blow over.

"I think a lot of people underestimate how loyal my supporters are," he told the Times.

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Trump and Clinton on stage. Image Credit: AP
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Organisers vaccuum the carpet at Washington University ahead of the Trump versus Clinton debate. Image Credit: AFP
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The media centre is seen prior to the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Image Credit: AFP
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