Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Topics and participation in the third presidential debate (October 2016)
Ballotpedia's scope changes periodically, and this article type is no longer actively created or maintained. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.
 Date: November 8, 2016 |
Winner: Donald Trump (R) Hillary Clinton (D) • Jill Stein (G) • Gary Johnson (L) • Vice presidential candidates |
Important dates • Nominating process • Ballotpedia's 2016 Battleground Poll • Polls • Debates • Presidential election by state • Ratings and scorecards |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 Have you subscribed yet?
Join the hundreds of thousands of readers trusting Ballotpedia to keep them up to date with the latest political news. Sign up for the Daily Brew.
|
This article analyzes the central themes of the third and final general election presidential debate held on October 19, 2016, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The transcript prepared by The Washington Post was used to measure candidate participation and audience engagement.[1] Footage from the debate was consulted where there were ambiguities in the text.
For comparison, see the analyses of the first and second general election debates held on September 26, 2016, and October 9, 2016, respectively.
Participants
 Hillary Clinton (D) |
 Donald Trump (R) | |||
Segments
This debate featured 16 unique discussion segments covering domestic affairs, the economy, presidential fitness, and military strategy. These discussion segments were measured by any shift in the theme of a discussion prompted by the moderator, Chris Wallace.
- Supreme Court and the Constitution
- Second Amendment
- Abortion
- Immigration
- Clinton's paid speeches and WikiLeaks
- Russia's influence on American elections
- Job growth
- GDP
- Trump and allegations of sexual misconduct
- Clinton Foundation
- Outcome of election
- Military strategy in Iraq
- Syria
- National debt
- Medicare and Social Security
- Closing statements
Approximately one-fifth of the debate's discussion segments related to foreign affairs or national security. Eight countries were mentioned five or more times: China, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. References to the cities of Aleppo, Mosul, and Raqqa were counted in this tally.
Several political leaders and high-profile individuals were also named more than once in the debate by the candidates. President Barack Obama was the most frequently mentioned individual.
Candidate participation by speaking time
According to Bloomberg, Clinton spoke longer than Trump for the first time in a general election debate. She logged 41.8 minutes to Trump's 35.7 minutes.[2] Politico similarly measured the candidates' speaking time at 40.8 minutes and 34.8 minutes.[3]
Although Clinton spoke longer than Trump, they said nearly the same number of words. Clinton spoke 6,849 words and Trump 6,531 words.
Audience engagement
Audience engagement was measured by noting applause, cheering, and laughter in The Washington Post's transcript. Footage from the debate was consulted when the text was ambiguous about to whom the audience was responding.
Although the audience was instructed to remain silent throughout the debate, they audibly applauded or laughed in response to the candidates six times throughout the event. This was comparable to the audience engagement seen in the second presidential debate and approximately half of the audience engagement seen in the first presidential debate. Wallace, the moderator, twice instructed the audience to remain quiet.
Overall, Trump received one more instance of positive audience engagement than Clinton. He also received one negative response.
Comments and exchanges receiving an audience response
- Clinton: So I actually think the most important question of this evening, Chris, is, finally, will Donald Trump admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this and make it clear that he will not have the help of Putin in in this election, that he rejects Russian espionage against Americans, which he actually encouraged in the past? Those are the questions we need answered. We've never had anything like this happen in any of our elections before.
Wallace: Well?
Trump: That was a great pivot off the fact that she wants open borders, OK? How did we get on to Putin?
- Clinton: Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, and I don't think there is a woman anywhere who doesn't know what that feels like. So we now know what Donald thinks and what he says and how he acts toward women. That's who Donald is. I think it's really up to all of us to demonstrate who we are and who our country is, and to stand up and be very clear about what we expect from our next president, how we want to bring our country together, where we don't want to have the kind of pitting of people one against the other, where instead we celebrate our diversity, we lift people up, and we make our country even greater. America is great, because America is good. And it really is up to all of us to make that true, now and in the future, and particularly for our children and our grandchildren.
Wallace: Mr. Trump...
Trump: Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody.
- Trump: You should have changed the law. But you won't change the law, because you take in so much money. I mean, I sat in my apartment today on a very beautiful hotel down the street known as Trump...
Clinton: Made with Chinese steel.
- Clinton: The FBI conducted a year-long investigation into my e-mails. They concluded there was no case; he said the FBI was rigged. He lost the Iowa caucus. He lost the Wisconsin primary. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. Then Trump University gets sued for fraud and racketeering; he claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn't get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.
Trump: Should have gotten it.
- Clinton: So that is not the way our democracy works. We've been around for 240 years. We've had free and fair elections. We've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election. You know, President Obama said the other day when you're whining before the game is even finished ... it just shows you're not up to doing the job.
- Trump: I think what the FBI did and what the Department of Justice did, including meeting with her husband, the attorney general, in the back of an airplane on the tarmac in Arizona, I think it's disgraceful. I think it's a disgrace.
Wallace: All right.
Trump: I think we've never had a situation so bad in this country.
Candidate analysis
|
|
See also
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential election, 2016/Polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
- Presidential election, 2016/Straw polls
Footnotes
