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Top zingers of the final debate

by Ben Kamisar

Wednesday night’s final 2016 presidential debate may have started out tame, but the Sin City clash quickly heated up.  

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sought to land punches during their last head-to-head appearance as the two squared off in a city home to some of the largest boxing fights in history. 
 
{mosads}Here are some of the top zingers by the two candidates.  
 
Where were you?
 
One of the GOP nominee’s main themes in his campaign is framing Clinton as a creature of Washington who must go. 
 
Toward the middle of the debate, Clinton sought to push back at that characterization by drawing a contrast between her time in public life and his in private life. She noted how she spent the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s working in the public eye to help children and advocating for equal rights for women, comparing that to Trump’s 1990s comments about a former Miss Universe winner and the fair-housing lawsuit he faced about his treatment of black tenants. 
 
“And on the day I was in the Situation Room monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting ‘The Celebrity Apprentice,’ ” Clinton said. 
 
“I am happy to compare 30 years of experience, what I’ve done for this country … with your 30 years.” 
Nasty woman
 
Trump closed the night with a biting barb at his Democratic rival, the sharpest personal attack of the night. 
 
While the two talked about the economy, Clinton needled Trump while talking about her tax plan, which would raise taxes on the wealthy. In doing so, she chided Trump for avoiding federal income tax, which drew a pointed response from Trump. 
 
“Such a nasty woman,” he shot back as she shook his head.  
 
Puppet show
 
Clinton dug in on Trump’s ties to Russia and his unwillingness to identify Russia as the perpetrator of the recent hack of Democratic systems by panning him as a “puppet” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
 
When asked about the recent release of hacked documents by WikiLeaks, Trump blasted how Russia has disrespected America and said he would be able to repair the relationship between the two world powers. 
 
“Putin, from everything I see has no respect for this person,” Trump said, pointing at Clinton. 
 
“Well that’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president,” Clinton responded. 
 
But Trump pushed back immediately, “No, you’re the puppet.”  
 
Good luck
 
Trump returned to his criticism of Clinton’s political tenure with a zinger of his own as he called Clinton’s anti-terror push while she was secretary of State completely ineffective. 
 
“If she did nothing, we’d be in much better shape. This is what’s caused the great migration where she’s taking in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who, definitely in many cases, are ISIS aligned. And we now have them in our country, this is going to be the great Trojan horse,” Trump said. 
 
“Wait ’til you see what happens in the coming years–lots of luck Hillary, great job.” 
 
Who does that?
 
When the two candidates mixed it up on their family foundations, Clinton unleashed a pointed barb about allegations he used his foundation for personal gain. 
 
Trump bashed the Clinton Foundation as a “criminal enterprise,” questioning why it took money from countries like Saudi Arabia that have more regressive views on women’s rights than America and accusing her foundation of mishandling aid to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake there.
 
But Clinton came to the foundation’s defense by citing accusations from The Washington Post’s reporting that Trump used his foundation for various personal expenses and that the vast majority of its dollars come from other people. 
 
“We have the highest rating from the watchdogs that follow foundations. I’d be happy to compare what we do with the Trump Foundation, which took money from other people and bought a 6-foot portrait of Donald. Who does that? It just was astonishing.”   

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