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.
Emails at issue
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."
