Who Is Winning The Debate? Donald Trump Tells Hillary Clinton About 'Bad Hombres' During Immigration, Border Security Discussion
In the third and final debate Wednesday night, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump touted his strict immigration policies, adding that we have some "bad hombres" in this country that we need to get out.
Trump has often claimed he would build a massive wall along the southern border of the U.S. and suggested mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Trump said at the debate that Clinton wanted to "give them amnesty," while bragging that he was endorsed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), even though it was actually a union of ICE employees.
"We have to have strong borders," Trump said. "One of my first acts would be round up all of the drug lords."
Trump implied some undocumented immigrants are dangerous. "We're going to secure the border and once the border is secured at a later date, we'll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out," Trump said.
Clinton said she wants a "secure border" but would back reform to assist undocumented immigrants who want to become citizens. Clinton said Trump would in contrast have a deportation force, which would mean "ripping our country apart."
Trump also warned Wednesday of Syrian refugees flooding into the U.S. Clinton has said there should be stringent screening but that rejecting refugees is un-American.
Heading into the debate Wednesday, Trump needed a good night to cut into Clinton's lead. She led by 6.2 percentage points in the Real Clear Politics average of polls in a four way race and state-level polling had her ahead in a number of key battleground states. In Florida, for instance, most recent polls showed Clinton ahead by about 3 to 6 points, while just one poll from SurveyMonkey had Trump up 2 points. Data-driven website FiveThirtyEight gave Clinton an about 87 percent chance of winning, according to its polls-only election forecast.
Polls of voters found Trump lost both the first and second debate, but heading into the final event the GOP nominee's focus seemed to be more on interacting with his supporters than getting ready for the debate. While Clinton took some downtime to get ready, Trump held rallies and delivered speeches to his most ardent supporters.
Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was asked on CNN this week about her candidate's prep. "He loves these forums," she said. "He loves the debates because you know, he is the one out there every single day."
Clinton withdrew from the campaign trail for four full days to prepare for Wednesday. "This is the last one. We are hoping for another large audience and it’s her last time in front of the biggest audience and we want to make sure we’re back the best use of that," Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, told ABC News.
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