2016 second presidential debate -- live blog
10:37 p.m. ET The debate has ended. Trump and Clinton just shook hands -- they didn’t at the beginning.
10:34 p.m. ET The last question came from an uncommitted voter in the audience. He asked the candidates if they can name one positive thing that each respects about the other.
“I respect his children,” Clinton said, adding that it says a lot about Trump. “I don’t agree with nearly anything else he does or says.”
Trump said that her comment was a “great compliment.”
He added, “She doesn’t quit. She doesn’t give up. I respect that. She’s a fighter.”
10:31 p.m. ET Candidates are asked what steps their energy policies will take to meet Americans’ needs while limiting job losses and not damaging the environment.
“I will bring our energy companies back,” said Trump, who added that the EPA is “so restrictive” it’s putting energy companies out of business.
Clinton said, “We’ve got to remain energy independent.” She said she has a comprehensive energy plan that includes fighting climate change.
10:29 p.m. ET Clinton said that she respects the 2nd Amendment, but wants comprehensive background checks, to close the gun show loophole and Charleston loophole.
10:25 p.m. ET Candidates are asked what they would prioritize as the most important aspect of picking a Supreme Court justice.
Clinton said she wants to choose someone who “understands the way the world really works” and people who have “real-life experience.”
She added that she wants the Supreme Court to reverse Citizens United, to understand that voting rights is still a big country in parts of the country and she wants the high court to respect the Roe v. Wade ruling.
Clinton slammed Senate Republicans for not taking up President Obama’s nominee of Merrick Garland to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, and vowed to “immediately move to ensure that we fill that” if elected president.
Trump said he has already proposed 20 possible nominees and said he would pick people who respect the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment.
10:21 p.m. ET Trump is asked if his recent tweet referring a “sex tape” involving former Miss Universe Alicia Machado shows that he has strong discipline, but he seemed to deny talking about one and then talked about Clinton’s role as secretary of state during the 2012 Benghazi attack.
Here’s the tweet:
10:19 p.m. ET Anderson Cooper asked Clinton how she can unite the country after her “deplorables” remark.
Clinton said that within hours, “I said I was sorry about the way I talked about that.”
She then slammed the “hateful, divisive” nature of Trump’s campaign and the “inciting of violence at his rallies.”
Clinton added that Trump has made “brutal kinds of comments” about not only women, but all kinds of Americans.
10:14 p.m. ET An undecided voter in the debate hall asked if the candidates can be a “devoted president to all people in the United States.”
Trump brought up Clinton’s remark from a month ago when she called his supporters “deplorable.” He said that he would help members of the black community and Hispanic community.
“If she’s president of the United States, nothing is ever going to happen...She’s all talk. It doesn’t get done.”
Clinton said she started off as a young lawyer working to fight discrimination against black children in schools.
“I have a deep devotion...to making sure that every American feels that he or she has a place in our country,” she said.
10:13 p.m. ET Trump complained that the moderators keep letting Clinton to go a few seconds over.
“It’s really very interesting,” Trump said.
10:12 p.m. ET Martha Raddatz asked Clinton if she would introduce the threat of U.S. military force beyond a no-fly zone against the Assad regime.
“I would not use American ground forces in Syria,” Clinton said. “I think that would be a very serious mistake. I don’t think that American troops should be holding territory, which is what they would have to do as an occupying force. I don’t think that would be a smart strategy.”
10:10 p.m. ET Martha Raddatz said that his running mate, Mike Pence, recently said that the U.S. should be prepared to use military force to strike the military targets of the Assad regime and that provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength.
“He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree,” Trump said.
10:07 p.m. ET Trump said that Clinton “talks tough about Russia” and the U.S. nuclear program “has fallen way behind.”
“Russia is new in terms of nuclear. We are old, we are tired, we are exhausted in terms of nuclear,” Trump said.
“She talks tough against Putin and Assad,” he added. “Every time we take rebels, we’re arming people...they end up being worse than the people...almost everything she’s done in foreign policy has been a mistake and it’s been a disaster.”
10:04 p.m. ET Candidates are asked from an undecided voter what they would do if elected president about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo since it’s reminiscent of the Holocaust and the U.S. waiting too long back then to take action.
“The situation in Syria is catastrophic,” Clinton said, adding that she advocates a “no-fly zone” in Syria to provide humanitarian aid to people suffering and to work with allies.
Clinton said she supports an investigation of the Russians and Syrians committing war crimes in Syria.
10:01 p.m. ET Trump accused Clinton of being an ineffective senator. Clinton said that as first lady, she helped get through the Children’s Health Insurance Fund, which has provided health insurance to 8 million kids, she said.
Clinton added that she worked to change the adoption and foster care system and she worked to rebuild New York after 9/11 and get healthcare for first responders.
She added, “Four-hundred pieces of legislation have my name on it.”
9:58 p.m. ET Anderson Cooper asked Trump if it was true that he posted a $916 million loss in his 1995 tax returns and he seemed to admit that he did, explaining that “a lot of my write-off was depreciation.”
“Of course I do,” Trump said. “Her donors took massive write-offs.”
“I understand the tax code better than anyone who’s ever run for president,” he said. “I pay tax and I pay federal tax, too.”
9:54 p.m. ET Candidates are asked what specific tax provisions they will change to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share. Trump said he will cut taxes for the middle class, while he said Clinton will raise “everybody’s classes massively.”
Trump said he would do away with carried interest, which he said helps the wealthy.
“He lives in an alternative reality,” Clinton said. “His plan will give the wealthy and corporations the biggest tax cuts they’ve ever had.”
Clinton alluded to the fact that Trump might not have paid federal income taxes for up to 18 years, according to a recent New York Times report about Trump’s 1995 tax returns.
9:49 p.m. ET Martha Raddatz said the leaked emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta showed excerpts from Clinton’s paid speeches to Wall Street and that Clinton said you need both a public and private position on certain issues. Uncommitted voters asked if it’s okay for politicians to be too-faced.
Clinton said that she was alluding to Steven Spielberg’s movie about Abraham Lincoln. She said that in order to get the Congress to approve the 13th Amendment, Clinton said he used a “principled and strategic” approach in which he used an argument with one group of people and another argument with another group of people.
“That was a great display of presidential leadership,” she said.
Clinton then began to shift the subject to news about the U.S. intelligence community accusing Russia of hacking into U.S. political groups in an effort to undermine the election. She went on to accuse Trump of having ties to Russia and called on Trump to release his tax returns. He said he’ll release them when his audit is over.
9:46 p.m. ET Clinton said that Trump has repeatedly lied about not initially supporting the war in Iraq even though that claim has been “debunked.”
“That has not been debunked,” Trump responded.
It has, in fact, been debunked. He said it on Howard Stern’s radio show.
9:42 p.m. ET Martha Raddatz said that Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence recently said that Trump’s proposed Muslim ban from last December is no longer their campaign’s position. Asked if that’s correct, Trump said, “First of all, Captain Khan is an American hero.”
“The Muslim ban is something that in some form has morphed into some extreme vetting for certain areas of the world,” Trump said.
Asked again if the Muslim ban is no longer his proposal, Trump said, “It’s called extreme vetting.”
Clinton said, “We will have vetting that’s as tough as it needs to be,” but then she asked about Trump’s policy about banning people based on a religion, “How do we do that?”
“Are we going to have religious tests when people fly into our country?” Clinton said, adding that what Trump has said was “extremely unwise” and “dangerous.”
“What Donald Trump says about Muslims is used to recruit fighters,” she said.
9:38 p.m. ET A Muslim undecided voter asked what the candidates would do to combat Islamophobia that’s on the rise.
“That’s a shame,” Trump said, but he added that, “There is a problem.”
“Whether we like it or not, there is a problem,” he said. “We have to be sure that Muslims come in and they report what’s going on.”
Trump claimed that in San Bernardino last year “many people saw the bombs all over the apartment.”
“If they don’t [report], it’s a very difficult situation for our country,” Trump said.
Clinton said that there have been some “divisive, dark things said about Muslims.” She added that his “demagogic” behavior is “dangerous” and his rhetoric plays into the hands of the terrorists.
9:35 p.m. ET Clinton was asked to address her husband’s comments from this past week about Obamacare being a “crazy system.” The former president later clarified the comment and said he supports the system.
During the debate, Clinton defended President Obama’s signature healthcare law and said, “20 million people have health insurance.”
Trump is asked how he would replace Obamacare. He said the U.S. would have “so much competition in the insurance industry.” He said he’s going to “block grant into the states.”
9:29 p.m. ET An uncommitted Missouri voter asked what the candidates will do to bring the cost down of healthcare and make costs better. Clinton and Trump argued over who would answer first. Trump said, “I’m a gentleman,” and he let Clinton answer first.
Clinton said she would “save what works and what’s good” about Obamacare and provide additional help to small businesses.
“If we repeal it as Donald has proposed and start over again, all of those benefits I just mentioned are lost to everybody,” she said.
Trump said Clinton wants to move to a single-payer plan like Canada’s. He added that it should be “repealed and replaced.”
9:28 p.m. ET Trump wanted to stay on the issue of emails, but Clinton wanted to move on to additional questions from voters. Clinton said Trump was trying to divert attention from the video of his lewd comments.
9:25 p.m. ET Martha Raddatz asked Clinton if it was extremely careless of her to operate a personal email server as secretary of state in which 110 classified emails were exchanged.
“That was a mistake. I take responsibility for using a personal email account. Obviously if I were to do it over again, I would not,” she said. “I am very sorry about that.”
Clinton said there’s “no evidence” that classified information was hacked and ended up in the wrong hands.
9:22 p.m. ET Trump said that Clinton owes an apology for her thousands of missing emails. He then said, “If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation.”
“There has never been so many lies, so much deception,” he said.
9:20 p.m. ET Clinton responded by repeating a line from Michelle Obama’s 2016 Democratic National Convention speech, “When they go low, we go high.”
Clinton went on to say Trump never apologized for mocking a New York Times reporter’s disability or to President Obama for spreading the “birther” conspiracy -- that he was not born in the U.S.
Clinton said Trump needs to give Mr. Obama an apology as well as the rest of the country.
9:18 p.m. ET The next question came from a guy named Jeff from Ohio on Facebook. Jeff asked: Trump said the campaign has changed him. When did that happen? Martha Raddatz piggybacked onto the question and asked when Trump walked off the bus on Access Hollywood at age 59, was he a different man then and did that behavior change?
“That was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I am a person who has great respect for people, my family, the people of this country,” Trump said.
Trump then brought up President Bill Clinton’s past infidelities.
“When you look at Bill Clinton,” he said, “There has never been anyone in the history of this nation...who has been so abusive to women.”
9:16 p.m. ET After Clinton outlined how she would help Americans, including minorities across the U.S., Trump said, “It’s just words, folks. It’s just words.”
9:14 p.m. ET Clinton responded and said with prior GOP presidential nominees, she has disagreed with them on policies, but she said, “I have never questioned their fitness to serve. Donald Trump is different.”
Clinton said back in June, she said Trump “was not fit to be president and commander in chief.”
“What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women,” Clinton said. “I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is.”
She went on to say that Trump has insulted women and members of other communities throughout the campaign.
9:11 p.m. ET Trump is asked by Anderson Cooper if he understood that he bragged about engaging in sexual assault in his comments from 2005 that surfaced on Friday.
“No, I didn’t say that at all,” Trump said. “I don’t think you understand what I said...This was locker room talk.”
“I apologize to my family and I certainly apologize to the American people,” added Trump, who then started talking about ISIS.
Pressed further to say whether he had actually engaged in such behavior, Trump claimed he hasn’t.
9:07 p.m. ET A voter in the audience asked if the candidates can display appropriate behavior for youth. Clinton, who won the coin toss to answer first, said it is “very important” for Americans to make clear to children that “our country is really great because we’re good.”
“We are going to respect one another, lift each other up,” said Clinton, who added that she will be looking for ways to embrace “diversity.”
She said she has a “positive” and “optimistic” view of the country’s direction.
“I agree with everything she said,” said Trump, who added that he is actually a “politician.”
Trump, however, slammed Obamacare, the situation involving trade and the U.S. border.
“We have to bring back respect to law enforcement,” he said.
9:05 p.m. ET Both candidates entered the debate hall. The candidates didn’t shake each other’s hands.
9:04 p.m. ET Moderators CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC News’ Martha Raddatz are kicking off the debate now.
9:03 p.m. ET Check out our live-blog of fact-checking throughout the debate tonight.
8:52 p.m. ET The debate -- a town hall meeting -- will begin in just a few minutes around 9 p.m. ET.
7:35 p.m. ET Donald Trump just delivered a pre-debate statement with women who have accused President Bill Clinton of sexual assault or rape including Juanita Broaddrick. Full story to come on CBSNews.com.
He shared the statement via a Facebook live feed.
Hillary Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, issued a statement on the event.
“We’re not surprised to see Donald Trump continue his destructive race to the bottom. Hillary Clinton understands the opportunity in this town hall is to talk to voters on stage and in the audience about the issues that matter to them, and this stunt doesn’t change that. If Donald Trump doesn’t see that, that’s his loss. As always, she’s prepared to handle whatever Donald Trump throws her way.”
7:30 p.m. ET The second general election debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is slated to kick off in about 90 minutes on the campus of Washington Unviersity in St. Louis, Missouri.
The debate comes about two weeks after the two nominees last faced off at their first debate and after major revelations have surfaced about Trump’s past.
Since the video of Trump making lewd comments in 2005 surfaced Friday, many Republicans have either condemned their nominee, withdrawn their endorsements or called for him to drop out of the race to allow Mike Pence to take over. Trump released a video late Friday attempting to apologize for his comments, but it didn’t go far enough for many Republicans.
Since the first debate, The New York Times has also reported that Trump’s 1995 tax returns, which it obtained, show that he posted a $916 million loss that year, which means he could have avoided paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks on Friday leaked hundreds of emails that were hacked from some of the email accounts of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman. One of the emails showed excerpts of Clinton’s speeches to Goldman Sachs.
