Sunday night is round two of the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presidential debates -- it’s likely to attract a lot of attention, especially given the emergence of a decade-old tape of Trump speaking about women in surprisingly vulgar terms that have earned him the condemnation of most Republicans, even those who have supported his campaign.

The debate, which will be a town hall meeting format, will be hosted by ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Both candidates squared off at the first debate on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University on Long Island in Hempstead, New York.

NBC appears to be the only major broadcast news network not airing the debate. Instead, it will be airing the NFL’s New York Giants away game against the Green Bay Packers.

Watch CBSN starting at 11a.m. ET for full coverage of the debate

The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) said half of the questions in the second debate will be posed directly by citizen participants and the other half will be “based on topics of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources.”

Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to each question and the moderator will be able to facilitate a deeper discussion for an additional minute. Gallup is selecting uncommitted voters to participate in the town hall.

The commission determined which candidates was eligible for the second debate by averaging support among five different general election polls and it also required that each candidate must have constitutional eligibility -- like being at least 35 years of age and a natural born citizen of the U.S. Each candidate must also have his or her name appear on enough state ballots “to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority” in November’s election.

Earlier this week, the commission announced that the polling averages from the five polls for the second debate had Clinton at 44.8 percent and Trump at 40.8 percent. With Libertarian Gary Johnson at 7.4 percent support and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 2.6 percent support, they both did not qualify.

Most voters said Clinton won the first debate, according to polls. Trump also complained about his microphone at the first debate and the commission later admitted that there was an issue with his audio, which affected how he was heard in the debate hall.

While Trump suggested he would bring up Bill Clinton’s sexual history during the second debate, he told the New York Post’s Page Six that he isn’t planning to do that after all. That was, however, before the Trump tape emerged. Since then, Trump has already brought up Bill Clinton’s past twice -- “Bill Clinton has actually abused women,” he said of the former president in what was supposed to be a video apology for his own lewd words.

That vulgar tape has caused several Republican lawmakers to call for Trump to quit the presidential race, paving the way for Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, to lead the GOP ticket. On Saturday, however, Trump remained defiant about staying in the race, tweeting out that “I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN!”

Clinton’s campaign condemned Trump’s 2005 comments, calling them “horrific,” but has not commented further on the controversy. According to her campaign, her first remarks on Trump and the tape are planned to be early in the debate Sunday night.

The debate also comes a few days after Hurricane Matthew affected millions along the southern part of the East Coast, including in key battleground state Florida.

Trump held his own town hall event on Thursday night in New Hampshire after his advisers urged him to practice for Sunday night.

Since the first debate, The New York Times published a report that showed he posted a $916 million loss in his 1995 tax returns they obtained, which means he could have avoided paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years. Trump has said that he can’t release his returns because he’s under audit, but that doesn’t bar someone from making them public. The Trump campaign has also not provided evidence that the GOP presidential nominee is currently under audit.

→ What: Second general election presidential debate

→ Where: Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

→ When: 9 p.m. ET

→ On TV: CBS News, other broadcast/cable news channels

→ Online: CBSN, among many websites, will live-stream the event

→ CBSN will cover the debate beginning at 7 p.m. ET</s>Trump and Clinton swipe at each other in vicious second debate

Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, speaks as Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, sits during the second U.S. presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri on Oct. 9.

ST. LOUIS — Donald Trump took a scorched-earth approach to trying to right his faltering campaign Sunday night, lashing out at his rival — and even threatening her with imprisonment — during a presidential debate where he confronted the turmoil that’s pushing his party toward mutiny.

Before an audience projected to be in the tens of millions, the GOP nominee faced his first public grilling over a 2005 video in which he boasted of sexually mauling women and getting away with tawdry behavior because of his celebrity; Trump responded by angrily accusing Bill and Hillary Clinton of worse misdeeds.

“Never, was there anybody in the history of politics in this nation that was so abusive to women” as Bill Clinton, said Trump, who had three of the former president’s accusers in the debate hall in St. Louis as his guests. “Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously.”

Trump and Clinton did not make any effort to hide their disdain for one another. The two did not even exchange the traditional handshake as they walked onto the stage.

Trump signaled in the exchange after exchange Sunday that in the final month of the contest, he will disregard the advice of his advisers and Republican Party elders by choosing to embrace confrontation over contrition.

After starting the debate on an apologetic note over the 2005 video, Trump quickly shed any restraint. He became riled after Clinton, early on, used the lewd remarks that recently surfaced to spring into all the reasons she believes Trump is unfit to be president.

“If this were just about one video, maybe what he is saying tonight would be understandable,” Clinton said. “But everyone can draw own conclusions at this point. He never apologizes to anyone for anything.”

She accused Trump of attacking Latinos, blacks, women and veterans, pointing to the numerous controversies Trump created for his campaign. She said he should be ashamed of himself for the lead role he played in the movement attempting to delegitimize President Barack Obama’s citizenship.

Trump responded by repeating the widely debunked claim that it was Clinton herself who launched the so-called birther movement.

When the topic of Hillary Clinton’s email troubles arose, Trump made the astonishing and unprecedented move of warning the Democratic nominee that he would use the powers of the presidency to try to put her in jail.

“The thing you should be apologizing for are the 30,000 emails you acid washed,” Trump said, referring to free software Clinton’s techs used called BleachBit. “I am going to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. … Lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you have done.”

Clinton responded to the attacks on the emails just as she responded to Trump’s dredging up the accusers of her and her husband from the 1990s and earlier. She urged voters to seek out fact-checking organizations — most of which have generally found Trump’s claims to be not credible — and insisted she would take a high road.

“Everything he just said is absolutely false and I am not surprised,” she said. “It is just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.”

Trump also suggested more than once that the two moderators were conspiring against him, including once after an extended discussion about Clinton’s emails, which Trump complained to CNN’s Anderson Cooper was not long enough.

“I’d like to know, Anderson, why aren’t you bringing up the emails?” Trump said. When the two moderators said it was time to move onto other questions, Trump said: “Nice … one on three.”

He even casually dismissed his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who said this week that Russian provocation in Syria and elsewhere needed to be met by American leadership.

When Trump seemed to praise Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as Russia and Iran for aggressively fighting Islamic State, moderator Martha Raddatz reminded Trump of what Pence had said.

“We haven’t spoken and I disagree with him,” Trump replied, a dramatic break between a major party presidential nominee and his running mate.

With more than two dozen Republican lawmakers and other party leaders rescinding their support since the video surfaced Friday — and the odds against him winning the White House growing steeper — Trump faced a political crisis unlike any candidate has faced in modern times.

Before the debate, Trump appeared unbowed, mocking the defectors on Twitter.

“So many self-righteous hypocrites,” he wrote, referring to the Republican leaders and elected officials who withdrew their support. “Watch their poll numbers — and elections — go down!”

In a surprise sprung 90 minutes before he faced his rival on stage, Trump appeared near the debate site alongside the women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct over the years. They expressed their support for Trump and condemned the former president and his wife.

“These four very courageous women have asked to be here, and it was our honor to help them,” said Trump, who posted the brief event on Facebook. He and the Clintons’ accusers declined to answer questions before reporters were ushered out of the hotel meeting room.

The debate on the campus of St. Louis’ Washington University bookended a disastrous stretch for Trump, which started with an ill-tempered and erratic performance in the candidates’ first debate Sept. 26.

He all but admitted his failure to pay federal income taxes and was confronted with derogatory and sexist remarks he leveled at a former Miss Universe, whose transgression was adding a few pounds during her reign.

Rather than back off, Trump waged a days-long shaming campaign against the former pageant queen, Alicia Machado, which was quickly overshadowed when The New York Times obtained a copy of part of his 1995 tax return and reported he claimed a loss of $916 million — enough to allow Trump to avoid taxes for up to 18 years.

That controversy, in turn, was overtaken by the release of the video and its raunchy talk. In an extraordinary step, even Pence refused to come to his defense.

Clinton faced her own difficult set of questions.

A trove of internal campaign emails posted Friday by WikiLeaks revealed details of the lucrative speeches the former secretary of State delivered behind closed doors after Clinton left the Obama administration in February 2013.

In the excerpts, Clinton said she dreamed of “open trade and open borders” between the U.S. and its hemispheric neighbors, spoke of the need to maintain “both a public and a private position” on politically difficult issues and suggested her growing wealth — fueled in large part by her speechifying — had left her disconnected from the struggles of middle-class Americans.

Clinton had to account for some of her own past statements that were recently revealed — transcripts of paid speeches she had given in private that were revealed after a hack of the email account of a senior Clinton campaign official.

Asked to explain her statement that public officials may have separate public and private policy views, Clinton explained that the comment was in the context to a discussion of Abraham Lincoln, and the “master class” of how he secured passage of the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery.

“It was principled and it was strategic,” she said, noting that Lincoln made different arguments to different audiences. “I was making the point that it is hard sometimes to get the Congress to do what you want it to do.”

The format of the debate also posed distinct challenges.

Unlike the first face-to-face matchup, in which the candidates stood behind lecterns and fielded questions from a lone moderator, Sunday’s session was styled after a town-hall meeting, with members of the audience asking questions along with the two journalists.

The format forced Trump to confront a Muslim American asking him directly about her fears of rising Islamophobia.

“Whether we like it or not, there is a problem,” the Republican said. “We have to be sure that Muslims come in and report when they see something going on.”

Clinton responded with seeming agreement on that point, saying that in her discussions with Muslim leaders across the country they have agreed that Muslim Americans need “to be part of our eyes and ears on the front lines.” But to do that, Muslims need to believe they are respected, she added, while condemning the “demagogic” rhetoric from Trump that also threatens our alliances with Muslim-majority countries in the war against the Islamic State.

“It is a mistake, and it plays into the hands of the terrorists,” she said.

Asked directly if he stood by his plan to bar Muslims from immigrating to the U.S., Trump mentioned his previously suggested “extreme vetting.”

There were even distractions when the discussion turned to policy. As Clinton described her plans to fix, rather than repeal, the Affordable Care Act to an audience member, Trump loomed ominously close behind her.

Clinton and Trump were scheduled for their third and final debate on Oct. 19 in Las Vegas. Election day is Nov. 8.</s>Sparks flew and toys were thrown out of the pram during a bad tempered second US presidential debate .

Donald Trump came under heavy fire for his lewd video scandal while Hillary Clinton was quizzed for the umpteenth time over her emails.

Clinton was hailed as the winner although commentators agreed Trump performed better than the first debate on September 26.

Here are the key moments from last night's debate.

Trump threw a curveball just over an hour before the debate after met with women who have accused former US president Bill Clinton of rape and other unwanted sexual advances.

The Republican nominees pre-debate event was thought to be a sign that he planned to use Mr Clinton as a distraction from the controversy over his own predatory remarks about women.

During the debate he said "there's never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that's been so abusive to women" as Mr Clinton.
• Veteran commentator absolutely NAILS what everyone's thinking about the Presidential debate in scathing rant

When the candidates were introduced to the audience, they did not shake hands when they arrived on stage.

Instead, the pair stood side by side before the debate kicked off.

However, they did shake hands after 90 minutes of tense exchanges.

The tape recording of Trump in which he talks about grabbing women "by the p***y" plunged his campaign into turmoil - making the debate even more eagerly anticipated.

"This was locker room talk. I'm not proud of it. I've apologised to my family. I've apologised to the American people. Certainly I'm not proud of it, but this is locker room talk," he said.

Trump also said he has "great respect" for women.

But the billionaire businessman attempted to deflect the question about his apparent condoning of sexual assault by vowing to defeat ISIS.

Clinton says Trump tape shows 'exactly who he is'

The Democratic candidate said the comments about women made in the tape by Trump represent "exactly who he is".

Clinton said he had insulted women throughout the presidential campaign, saying: "What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women, and he has said that the video doesn't represent who he is, but I think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is, because we've seen this through the campaign.

"We've seen him insult women, we've seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to 10, we've seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter."
• Celebrities tweet support for Hillary Clinton as she takes on Donald Trump in second US presidential debate

Trump would 'throw Clinton in jail' if he was in charge

Trump said Clinton should be in jail over her use of a private email server while she was US secretary of state.

He said: "I hate to say it but if I win I'm going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation."

In response, Clinton said: "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in this country."

And Trump replied: "Because you'd be in jail."

After Donald Trump's accusations about her husband, Hillary Clinton said a lot of what he had said was "not right".

She said what came to mind was advice from friend First Lady Michelle Obama - "When they go low, you go high".

Clinton said everyone can draw their own conclusions about whether Trump respects women.

Trump disagrees with his OWN running mate Mike Pence

Trump sounded the most indignant when he pressed Clinton on US foreign policy in Syria, Libya and other areas of the Middle East.

But curiously, he revealed that he diverged from his running mate when it came to the question of whether he supported Pence's threat to strike the military targets of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"He and I haven't spoken, and I disagree," Trump said.

It was an interesting comment - one that will likely continue to raise questions of Trump's past praise of the Russians, who are backing the Syrian leader.
• Desperate Donald Trump makes bizarre appearance with Bill Clinton sex assault accusers hours before second Presidential debate

If you have nothing nice to say...

The final question in the debate drew a chuckle from the two candidates as they were asked to think of something they respected about each other.

Mrs Clinton said: "I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and I think that says a lot about Donald."

Mr Trump said: "I will say this about Hillary - she doesn't quit, she doesn't give up. I tell it like it is. She's a fighter."

Trump made numerous snarky suggestion that moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz were favouring Clinton.

Early on, Raddatz pressed Clinton on the controversy over her use of private email account during her time as Secretary of State and her decision to delete some 33,000 emails. "You don't call that extremely careless?" Raddatz said to Clinton.

After Clinton's two-minute response, Cooper moved the next question on to a new topic. But Trump, the Republican candidate, interjected: "Why haven't you brought up the emails?"

Cooper replied: "We did bring up the emails." As he moved to the fate of Obamacare, Trump said with sarcasm: "It's nice - one on three."

That comment was interpreted as Trump claiming that Raddatz and Cooper were supporting Clinton at his expense.

Trump's suggestion of bias by the debate moderators is in keeping with his past claims that the "mainstream" media coverage of his presidential campaign has been unfair.</s>ST. LOUIS — In a stunningly brazen move, Donald Trump met Sunday night with several women who have accused Bill Clinton of rape and other unwanted sexual advances, just over an hour before the Republican presidential nominee was stepping on the debate stage with the former president’s wife, Hillary Clinton.

The Trump pre-debate event was the clearest sign yet that he planned to use Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs to try to distract from the swirling controversy over his own predatory remarks about women. Trump is under enormous pressure from his own Republican Party after the release of a 2005 video in which the businessman can be heard saying his fame allows him to “do anything” to women.

Trump refused to answer questions from reporters about the video during his meeting in a hotel conference room with Paula Jones, Kathy Shelton, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey. Some of the women seated alongside him, however, were graphic in their accusations against the Clintons.

“Mr. Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me,” Broaddrick said. “I don’t think there’s any comparison.”

Broaddrick, a former Arkansas nursing home administrator, first claimed 17 years ago that Bill Clinton raped her during a meeting in Little Rock in 1978. Her lawsuit against him was dismissed in 2001 and criminal charges were never filed. Clinton has denied the allegations.

Trump is trying to change the subject from his own conduct. Even before Friday’s new revelations of his sexual remarks about women, his campaign was slumping. But the release of the 2005 video has some leading Republicans convinced the damage is insurmountable.

Even Trump’s most loyal supporters struggled to defend him on Sunday.

“They’re remarks you certainly don’t want to hear from anyone, much less a presidential candidate,” Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, said on CNN. “I think he made a full and complete apology for it. He probably is going to do it again tonight.”

Clinton has stayed largely silent since the video was made public, though running mate Tim Kaine accused Trump of engaging in a “pattern of assaultive behavior.”

“I think there’s kind of a piece of the jigsaw puzzle missing in Donald Trump where he does not look at women and consider them as equal to himself,” Kaine said on CNN.

Trump’s troubles have almost completely overshadowed the release of hacked emails from the Clinton campaign that revealed the contents of previously secret paid speeches to Wall Street. Clinton told bankers behind closed doors that she favored “open trade.” Such remarks were at odds with her tough public comments.

Trump allies desperately hope the businessman can keep his focus in the debate on Clinton, raising questions about her trustworthiness and pushing his own populist economic ideas. The candidates will face questions in the town hall-style setting both from moderators and undecided voters seated with them on stage, a format that typically rewards candidates who show empathy and connect with the problems facing Americans.

But as Trump’s meeting with Clinton’s accusers indicated, he appeared to have other priorities.

Trump has long hinted he would raise Bill Clinton’s sexual history at debates. In what was billed as a videotaped apology for the 2005 videotaped remarks, Trump said “Bill Clinton has actually abused women” and Hillary Clinton “bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated” her husband’s “victims.”

Clinton’s campaign appeared unconcerned by the prospect of Trump raising Bill Clinton’s past.

“If that is how he chooses to spend his time in the debate, then that’s his decision,” Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters. “I’m not sure that’s what voters are going to want to hear.”

At a fundraiser in Chicago, President Barack Obama called Trump’s rhetoric “disturbing.” Obama said “it tells you that he’s insecure enough that he pumps himself up by putting other people down.”

Trump’s own running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has declared he could neither condone nor defend the remarks in the video revealed on Friday.

Other Republicans have taken the extraordinary step of revoking support for their party’s nominee. Among them: Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte — both are running for re-election — and the party’s 2008 nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. Some called on Trump to quit the race.

“I thought about years from now when my daughter Kate is old enough to know what is in those tapes and to understand what he is talking about,” Ayotte said of her 12-year-old daughter during a press conference Sunday. “I want her to know where I stood.”

Trump spent Sunday morning highlighting Twitter messages from supporters who slammed Republican leaders for abandoning him. In his own message, Trump said, “So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers — and elections — go down!”

Republican leaders scheduled a rare Monday conference call for House GOP lawmakers, who are on recess. An email obtained by The Associated Press doesn’t specify the topic, but rank-and-file lawmakers believe it’s about Trump.</s>US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump , facing dwindling support from his party over lewd remarks about women, goes into the second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton on Sunday under intense pressure.

Not only must he deflect attacks from Clinton and explain why he is a better alternative, he must also show a rare apologetic side to stop more Republican supporters from deserting him.

Trump already faced an uphill struggle to win the Presidential battle next month before a 2005 video emerged in which he could be heard talking crudely about women.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll had Clinton leading by five points on Friday, before the video surfaced. Following the controversy, the question now is whether Trump's quest for the White House is all but over.

Trump would have to resign the nomination to allow Republican leaders to choose a successor, but the New York businessman is showing no signs of stepping down.

The businessman tweeted from to supporters that he wouldn't be going anywhere.

However, his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, said on Sunday that Trump needs to show contrition.

"We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation tomorrow night," Pence said in a statement.
• What time is the second Trump V Clinton US presidential Debate and how can I watch it on tv?

Trump's opponent has been hunkered down for days preparing for what could be, for her, a knockout blow against him.

Before the video surfaced, Clinton campaign officials said they were expecting the Republican nominee to come to the debate more subdued than the first round, where he was repeatedly put on the defensive.

But they were also prepared in case Trump follows through with a threat to focus on Clinton's sometimes troubled marriage to former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton, who has already capitalised on Trump's treatment of women, seemed unperturbed about the possibliity of an attack from Trump on her marriage.

Speaking during a fundraising event in Washington on Wednesday, she said: "I feel it's my responsibility not to defend myself against his attacks because, really, been there, done that."
• Donald Trump refuses to stand down despite obscene comments about women

"I think it's my responsibility to defend everybody else against his attacks," she said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Clinton has her own issues to face. Wikileaks on Friday published an email from Clinton advisers appearing to contain excerpts of paid speeches to corporations, in which Clinton voices support for open trade and borders and says how sometimes it is important to have a public and private position.
• Robert de Niro calls Donald Trump a 'bullshit artist' and 'an embarrassment to this country' in new video</s>Livestream and live updates from fact-checkers on Twitter during the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on October 9, 2016, in St. Louis. Watch here and on CNN at 9 p.m. ET.</s>WASHINGTON — Donald Trump mischaracterized the record on Hillary Clinton’s defense of her husband and her own treatment of women when he brought up Bill Clinton’s sexual history and other episodes of the past. Clinton didn’t give a square account of the fallout from her email practices.

A look at some of the claims in the second presidential debate:

TRUMP, asked whether the predatory behavior with women that he described in a 2005 video amounted to sexual assault: “No, I didn’t say that at all.”

THE FACTS: He certainly didn’t own up to sexual assault in his boastful remarks in 2005. But he clearly described groping and kissing women without their permission, using his celebrity to impose himself on them.

“I don’t even wait,” he bragged in the video. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” He went on: “Grab them by the p——. You can do anything.”

He described a specific sexual advance toward a married woman. “I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there.”

TRUMP on Hillary Clinton’s behavior when, as a young public defender, she was assigned to represent an accused child rapist: “She’s seen on two separate occasions, laughing at the girl who was raped. Kathy Shelton, that young woman, is here with us tonight.”

THE FACTS: At no point was Clinton seen laughing at the victim.

In 1975, at the age of 12, Shelton was sexually assaulted in Northwest Arkansas. Clinton was asked by a judge overseeing the case to represent her alleged attacker. After the prosecution lost key evidence, Clinton’s client entered a plea to a lesser charge.

In an interview a decade later, Clinton expressed horror at the crime, but was recorded on tape laughing about procedural details of the case. The audio has been seized on by conservative groups looking to attack Clinton’s presidential candidacy but does not convey mirth at the girl’s fate.

TRUMP on women linked to Bill Clinton sexually: “Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously.”

THE FACTS: There is no clear, independent evidence that Hillary Clinton “viciously” attacked women who alleged or confirmed sexual contact with her husband.

To be sure, in the 1992 Democratic primaries, she was deeply involved in the Clinton campaign’s effort to discredit one accuser, actress Gennifer Flowers, who alleged she had a long-running affair with Bill Clinton. Both Clintons acknowledged past troubles in their marriage but sought to undermine Flowers’ claims. Bill Clinton later acknowledged in a 1998 court deposition that he had a sexual encounter with Flowers.

Hillary Clinton was also quoted over the years making disparaging comments about other women linked with her husband.

What is lacking is proof that she engineered efforts to smear their reputation. Diane Blair, a political science professor and long-time Hillary Clinton friend who died in 2000, left behind an account of private interviews with Hillary Clinton in which she told her during the Monica Lewinsky affair that she considered the former White House intern a “narcissistic loony toon.”

CLINTON: “After a yearlong investigation, there is no evidence that anyone hacked the server I was using, and there is no evidence that anyone can point to, at all … that any classified material ended up in the wrong hands.”

THE FACTS: Maybe, maybe not. While there’s indeed no direct, explicit evidence that classified information was leaked or that her server was breached, it was nevertheless connected to the internet in ways that made it more vulnerable to hackers — and the public may never know who saw them. FBI Director James Comey has said: “We assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.”

The Associated Press previously discovered that her private server, which has been a major campaign issue for Clinton and the focus of U.S. investigations, appeared to allow users to connect to it openly over the internet and control it remotely. That practice, experts said, wasn’t intended to be used without additional protective measures, and was the subject of U.S. government warnings at the time over attacks from even amateur hackers.

Since the AP in early 2013 traced her server to her home in Chappaqua, New York, Clinton hasn’t fully explained who administered her server, if it received software updates to plug security holes or if it was monitored for unauthorized access. It’s also unclear what, if any, encryption software Clinton’s server may have used to communicate with official U.S. government email accounts.

Comey has said Clinton and her staff “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” But he said the FBI won’t recommend criminal charges against Clinton for use of the server while she was secretary of state and closed the investigation.

TRUMP on Bill Clinton: “He lost his license. He had to pay an $850,000 fine.”

THE FACTS: Trump’s facts are, at best, jumbled. In 1998, lawyers for Bill Clinton settled with former Arkansas state employee Paul Jones for $850,000 in her four-year lawsuit alleging sexual harassment. It was not a fine, and there was no finding or admission of wrongdoing.

Trump erred in describing the legal consequences of that case. In a related case before the Arkansas State Supreme Court, Clinton was fined $25,000 and his Arkansas law license was suspended for five years. Clinton also faced disbarment before the U.S. Supreme Court but he opted to resign from the court’s practice instead of facing any penalties.

CLINTON: “We are now, for the first time ever, energy independent.”

THE FACTS: Clinton inaccurately overstates the case. For the first time in decades the United States gets more energy domestically than it imports, but it is not yet energy independent as the country continues to rely on oil imports, from the Mideast and elsewhere. Estimates vary as to when the U.S. might achieve energy independence.

Domestic oil production has greatly increased in recent years. And at the same time oil imports as a percentage of consumption have dropped, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Oil imports have dropped from 3.58 billion barrels in 2008 to 2.68 billion barrels in 2015.

TRUMP: “She (Clinton) wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster … she wants to go to single-payer, which means the government basically rules everything.”

THE FACTS: It’s Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — not Clinton — who supports a Canada-style government-run health care system.

While Clinton’s health care proposals would expand the government’s role in the health care system, she’s not talking about dismantling the current system, which is a hybrid of employer-sponsored coverage, government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and individually purchased insurance.

As president, Clinton would push for a government-sponsored insurance plan in the health care markets created by President Barack Obama’s health care law, as an alternative to private insurance. But those markets currently cover about 11 million people, while about 155 million have job-based coverage.

In excerpts from Clinton’s paid speeches she gave behind closed doors, though, she did praise Canada’s universal coverage and said that single-payer systems were “as good or better” when it came to basic medical care. But she also noted drawbacks of such health care systems, such as longer wait times for procedures.

TRUMP: “I would not have had our troops in Iraq.”

THE FACTS: Trump actually offered lukewarm support for invading Iraq before the war began. He’s repeatedly and erroneously claimed to have come out against the war before it started, telling Howard Stern in September 2002: “Yeah I guess so,” when asked if he would back an invasion.

This time, his claim was slightly different — that if he had been president at the time, he would not have invaded. It’s conceivable, at least, that he would have taken a position in office at odds with his stance as a private citizen. A few months before the March 2003 invasion, he did tell Fox News that the economy and threats from North Korea posed greater problems than Iraq.

TRUMP: “I don’t like Assad at all. But Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS.”

THE FACTS: Only partially true. Syria’s President Bashar Assad considers the Islamic State group to be among numerous “terrorist” groups that threaten his government. His overstretched military is mainly focused on combating Syrian opposition groups, some of which are supported by the United States. Assad does use air power against IS-held areas and his ground forces are engaged in fighting with the extremists in Deir el-Zour in the east.

TRUMP, asked whether he had ever sexually assaulted a woman: “No, I have not.”

THE FACTS: He’s been accused of it but a case has not been proved.

Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump, accused him of rape in a deposition in the early 1990s. She later said she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she felt violated. Trump was also sued for sexual harassment in 1997 by Jill Harth, a woman who, along with her romantic partner, was pitching Trump to get involved in a pin-up competition in the early 1990s.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Harth said Trump ran his hands up her skirt during dinner in 1992, and on another occasion, she said Trump tried to force himself on her in his daughter Ivanka’s bedroom. “Next thing I know he’s pushing me against a wall and has his hands all over me,” Harth told the newspaper. Harth dropped her harassment lawsuit against Trump after he settled a separate breach of contract lawsuit. Trump has denied Harth’s allegations.

TRUMP: “She is raising your taxes and I am lowering your taxes. … She’s raising everybody’s taxes massively.”

CLINTON: “He would end up raising taxes on middle-class families”

THE FACTS: Clinton is not raising taxes on “everybody.” Nearly all of Hillary Clinton’s proposed tax increases would affect the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Trump is proposing massive tax cuts for both individuals and businesses. Yet it’s not clear that all Americans would benefit. The conservative Tax Foundation estimates that the bottom 80 percent of taxpayers would see their after-tax income rise from 0.8 percent to 1.9 percent. The wealthiest 1 percent would see their after-tax incomes rise at least 10.2 percent to 16 percent.

Yet Clinton may be right that Trump’s proposals would increase taxes on many middle- and lower-income families. Trump’s plan eliminates the personal exemption, which currently allows households to reduce their taxable income by $4,050 for each member of the household, including children. He would replace that with higher deductions, but for many single parents and families with three or more children, the standard deduction wouldn’t be large enough to offset the loss of personal exemptions.

TRUMP, asked whether his tweets directing people to check out a sex tape showed discipline: “It wasn’t ‘check out a sex tape.’”

THE FACTS: Yes it was. Trump tweeted “check out sex tape and past” of former 1996 Miss Universe Alicia Machado, a woman whom Clinton discussed in the first presidential debate as an example of Trump’s derogatory comments about women.

Machado has publicly supported Clinton and criticized Trump for body-shaming her by calling her “Miss Piggy” and threatening to take away her crown for gaining weight.

The video Trump appeared to be referring to was from a Spanish reality show. In 2005, Machado, who was a contestant on the show, was filmed in bed, under the covers with a male contestant and speaking sexually about his body parts. The grainy footage doesn’t show nudity, though Machado has said that she was having sex in the footage.

CLINTON: “If we repeal (Obama’s health care law) as Donald has proposed, all of those benefits I have mentioned are lost to everybody … and then we will have to start all over again.”

THE FACTS: Clinton is essentially correct. Congressional Republicans have promised their replacement plan for Obama’s health care law would provide coverage for the uninsured, but they have not provided enough detail to allow a rigorous comparison. A complete repeal of the health care law would wipe the slate clean and lawmakers would have to start over.

Republicans have expressed support for some goals of the health care law, such as assuring that people with health problems can get coverage, but whether a GOP replacement plan would work as well remains to be seen. Trump’s own plan was recently evaluated by the Commonwealth Fund and the RAND Corporation, and the analysis found would increase the number of uninsured people by about 20 million.</s>ST. LOUIS -- A defiant Donald Trump on Sunday attacked former President Bill Clinton for his treatment of women and vowed, if he won the White House, to 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.

The 90-minute debate got off to a chilly start when the two candidates for the Nov. 8 election greeted each other without the traditional handshake. It quickly turned into an acrimonious discussion of a 2005 video that emerged on Friday in which Trump was heard using vulgar language and talking about groping women without consent.

Trump said he was embarrassed by the video but dismissed it as "locker room talk." President Bill Clinton had done worse to women, he said.

"Mine are words and his are action," said Trump, who appeared before the debate with women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. In the debate, Trump also accused Hillary Clinton of going on the attack against women who had alleged sexual misconduct by her husband, president from 1993-2001.

Hillary Clinton responded that Trump's comments showed he was unfit for the White House.

"He has said the video doesn't represent who he is but I think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is," Clinton said.

Trump also went on the attack against Clinton over her private email server, saying: "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

Clinton said, "You know it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in this country." Trump shot back: "Because you'd be in jail."

A nearly year-long FBI investigation into the emails concluded earlier this year without charges being filed, although FBI Director James Comey said Clinton had been careless in her handling of sensitive material.

Clinton insisted there was "no evidence" that her server had been hacked and that any classified information had ended up in the wrong hands. "I take classified material very seriously," she said.

Trump said: "You said it was fine to delete 33,000 emails. I don't think so."

Clinton shook her head. "Look it's just not true."

She accused Trump of dodging a discussion of policy issues to avoid talking about his campaign because of "the way yours is exploding and Republicans are leaving you."

A flood of Republicans have withdrawn their support for Trump over the video. The controversy has pitched Trump into the biggest crisis of his 16-month-old campaign and deepened fissures between him and establishment Republicans.

The debate's town hall-style format, with undecided voters posing about half the questions and the debate's two moderators posing the others, allowed the candidates to move freely around the stage and address the questioners directly.

Clinton, 68, and Trump, 70, both stood up to answer questions, and Clinton frequently stood directly in front of the questioners to try to make a connection with voters. At times Trump stood almost over her shoulder, or wandered the stage, while she spoke.

Trump complained about moderators Anderson Cooper of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC News, saying the debate was "three on one."

Trump and Clinton clashed on a series of topics throughout the debate, battling 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."

"Within hours I said I was sorry about the way I talked about that, because my problem is not with his supporters, it's with him," Clinton said.

Trump, in a badgering tone, offered a blistering critique of Clinton's handling of foreign policy as secretary of state, repeatedly calling it a failure.

"She talks tough, she talks really tough," Trump said. "She talks about the rebels, she doesn't even know who the rebels are."

Taking a breath through his nose with a loud sniff, he continued, "The fact is almost everything she's done in foreign policy has been a mistake and a disaster."

Trump also said he disagreed with Mike Pence, his vice presidential running mate, who declared last week in his debate against Clinton's No. 2 Tim Kaine that the United States should be prepared to use military force if needed in Syria.

"He and I haven't spoken and I disagree," Trump said.

Trump met just hours before the debate on Sunday with three women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct and a fourth woman who was a victim in a rape case that Hillary Clinton participated in as a defense attorney. All four sat in the first row of the audience at the debate.

Before the debate, Trump had threatened he was going to attack Bill Clinton for his marital infidelities in response to criticism from Hillary Clinton that the Republican nominee is a misogynist who has a history of mistreating women.

Trump appeared with Paula Jones, who filed a sexual harassment suit against Bill Clinton in 1991, Juanita Broaddrick, who accused Bill Clinton of rape in 1978, and Kathleen Willey, a former White House aide who accused Bill Clinton of groping her in 1993.

None of the accusations was new. Bill Clinton was never charged in any of the cases, and he settled a sexual harassment suit with one of the women, Paula Jones, for $850,000 with no apology or admission of guilt.

Also at the event was Kathy Shelton, who was raped at the age of 12. Hillary Clinton, a practicing attorney at the time, defended the rapist who ultimately pleaded guilty to a reduced charge.

Clinton's campaign responded to Trump's pre-debate event by calling it a "stunt" and a "destructive race to the bottom."

Asked at the end to name one thing each admired about the other, Clinton said she respected his children for their ability and devotion to Trump. In response, Trump called her a fighter and said he admired her for her refusal to give up.

As the moderators announced the end of the debate, the two candidates turned toward each other and shook hands.

Their next and last debate is on Oct. 19.</s>The second US presidential debate brought a volley of accusations between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the candidates met in St. Louis. The action and reaction is followed here by the FT DC bureau team, led by Barney Jopson, Courtney Weaver while Anna Nicolaou is reading the mood among supporters in the bar at Trump Tower.

In progress US presidential debate: Trump vs Clinton round two

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Some participant features are not available in Internet Explorer; please use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome instead.</s>Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, facing eroding support from his party over lewd remarks about women, goes into a second presidential debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton on Sunday needing to demonstrate he remains a credible candidate.

The pressure on the 70-year-old Trump at the debate will be intense. Not only must he parry attacks from Clinton and explain why he is a better alternative, he must also show an apologetic side to stop more Republican supporters from giving up on him.

Trump already had an uphill battle to win the White House in the Nov. 8 election before disclosure of a 2005 video in which he could be heard talking crudely about women.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll had Clinton leading by five points on Friday, before the video surfaced. Now, the question is whether Trump’s quest for the presidency is all but over. The fresh controversy adds an air of unpredictability over the 9 p.m. EDT debate at Washington University in St. Louis, the second of three scheduled presidential debates as the long-running U.S. election contest enters its final weeks.

It will be a town hall-style debate with undecided voters posing half the questions and the debate’s two moderators posing the others. His vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, said on Sunday that Trump needs to show contrition.

“We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation tomorrow night,” Pence said in a statement. The crisis has put the Republican National Committee in a tight spot with less than a month to go until Election Day.

Trump would have to resign the nomination to allow Republican leaders to choose a successor, but the New York businessman is showing no signs of stepping down despite increasing calls from elected leaders for him to let Pence become the nominee.

At the first debate, on Sept. 26, Trump was repeatedly put on the defensive by Clinton. He never let her accusations go unanswered, and as a result he missed opportunities to use his speaking time to draw attention to Clinton’s perceived weaknesses.

Republicans said Trump needed to perform more like Pence, who was deemed the winner in his vice presidential debate against Democratic rival Tim Kaine last week. Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said there is plenty Trump could learn from Pence, who stayed on offense at the vice-presidential debate, did not bother to respond to Kaine’s accusations, and looked calm and unflappable.

“It was a clear lesson in how you avoid falling into your opponent’s traps,” Bonjean said. “Don’t talk about what the other side wants you to talk about, focus on what you want to talk about.” Clinton has been hunkered down for days getting ready for what could be, for her, a knockout blow against Trump.

Before the video surfaced, Clinton campaign officials said they were expecting the Republican nominee to come to the debate more subdued than the first round. But they were also prepared in case Trump follows through with a threat to focus on Clinton’s sometimes troubled marriage to former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton, who has already capitalized on Trump’s treatment of women, herself foreshadowed how she might respond to an attack from Trump on her marriage during a speech to a fundraiser in Washington on Wednesday.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hold the second presidential debate of the 2016 U.S. presidential election at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in a "town meeting" format.