VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Mind games, closing arguments in Round 3
WASHINGTON — It was barely three weeks ago that Donald Trump opened the first presidential debate by asking, with faux deference, if it was OK to refer to his opponent as “Secretary Clinton.”
By Round 2 he was back to calling Hillary Clinton “the devil.” Since then, the Republican candidate’s scorched-earth campaign tactics have left all sides wondering just how low things will go in the third and final presidential debate, coming up Wednesday night.
For her part, Clinton steps up as a flood of hacked emails provides an unprecedented real-time look into the machinations of a presidential campaign — hers. In the disclosed material, Clinton is shown taking positions in paid, private speeches at odds with some of her public pronouncements. And she is revealed as resistant to advice by aides to apologize for her email practices and clear the air. That’s all fodder for the debate.
Trump, never known for self-censorship, has pronounced himself “unshackled” at last in the final weeks of the campaign. That has people wondering what Trump possibly has left to unleash.