#pnut4prez: A Night Of Burning Bridges

Tensions were high before the debate kicked off last night. Over the weekend, Wikileaks released excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street speeches, where she described herself as out of touch with the middle class and having a “private position” on issues that differ from her public position. On a normal day, these leaks would dominate the news cycle, but to her relief, she was overshadowed by leaked footage of Donald Trump making lewd and perverted comments in which he bragged about trying to sleep with a married woman and go as far as assaulting women by “grab[bing] them by the p***y.” The leak was so damning that it forced Trump to do something he hadn’t done yet: sort of apologize.

PNUT POLL: What did you think of last night’s debate?

Needless to say, the weekend was generous in giving both candidates ammo to prepare for last night’s debate. If you had the good fortune of missing last night’s battle, here are the highlights:

• Anderson Cooper went after Trump asking him to comment on the leaked video of Trump joking about sexual assault. Trump dismissed it as “locker room talk” and didn’t appear to show remorse. Instead he deflected toward the topic of ISIS, because at least he wasn’t “beheading people.”
• We thought the debates couldn’t get more contentious, but last night got ugly. Trump called Clinton the devil, and went so far as to suggest she’d be in jail if he won the Presidency… a classic dictator move.
• Clinton also got a few digs in, dismissing Trump by prodding into his abandonment issues. “Okay, Donald. I know you are into big diversion, anything to avoid talking about your campaign and the way Republicans are leaving you.”
• Trump and Pence’s rocky relationship was heightened during the debate. If it wasn’t clear the dynamic duo are at odds since the release of Trump’s remarks about women, it became blatantly obvious that they aren’t getting along when Trump flat out said he had not spoken to his running mate and disagrees with him about his strategy in Syria.
• Trump fought with the moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz, complaining that they were cutting him off and favoring Hillary Clinton. He spoke more than Hillary Clinton by one minute. We also expect him to blame another potentially faulty microphone causing him to sniffle some more. 
• And lastly, for those of you who were curious, the fly wasn’t just on your screen. #fly2016

Trump was able to stop his campaign from completely falling apart… for now. Clinton, who is benefiting from positive momentum in her favor, drew out his biggest weapons (Bill Clinton’s history, Benghazi, emails) and was able to escape relatively unscathed.

TL;DR: The 12 Moments That Defined The 2nd Presidential Debate