US presidential debate: ‘Thankfully, the last one because it can’t get much worse’

The last 2016 US presidential debate between Clinton and Trump was at the same low level we’ve become accustomed to this year, and America let out a big sigh of relief that the debates are now over, experts told RT.

US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump held their final debate before the election in November. Clinton again blamed Russia for hacking the Democratic Party's data and handing it over to WikiLeaks.

“Both of the candidates pulled out, what they call their ‘trump cards,’ if you want to call it that, Trump attacking Hillary for corruption, for being cozy with Wall Street; and Hillary playing both a ‘China card’ and a ‘Russia card’ against Trump. So it really was at the same low level of presidential debates that we’ve become accustomed to this year. Thankfully it is the last one, because it can’t get much worse,”William Jones, Executive Intelligence Review commented to RT.

Clinton’s attempt to try and “paint Trump as some kind of puppet of Putin was a little bit verging on the absolutely silly,” he said. “Trump is a strange character, probably one of the strangest characters that ever approached the presidency, but Trump is a puppet of Donald Trump’s own ego. To try and place the blame on some foreign entity is pretty ridiculous for a presidential candidate. I think it made Clinton look rather un-presidential in trying to paint that picture of Trump.”

James Lark, secretary of the International Society for Individual Liberty also says “America let out of big sigh of relief that the debates are now over.”

“With all due respect to the candidates I think they largely put on a pretty poor show. They have demonstrated it very nicely, why I believe neither of them should be elected president,” he said.

As for Clinton accusing the Kremlin, he said regardless of who was involved in the hacking, “it is in the best interest of the Clinton campaign to try to draw attention away from the content of the various emails, and they will be happy to do that in whatever fashion they can,” Lark added.

Echo of the Cold War

Investigative reporter Arun Gupta said fears of a new Cold War are overblown, and it is a way for Democrats to appear tough during the current presidential election campaign.

RT: Less so than before, but still plenty of personal attacks last night – it’s been a feature of the election campaign. Why the lack of decorum?

Arun Gupta: One has to do with Donald Trump himself. He obviously has a very vicious personality; he is ruthless…Provocation is a constant feature of American politics. But there has been breathtaking dishonesty – he has scrambled the political landscape like no candidate before. But there is also a systemic problem, in which the American political system relies on branding and imaginary. So it is much more about personality than policies. We do get a lot of these character-based attacks, rather than substantive issue discussions.

RT: Hillary Clinton has been dragged into this, hasn’t she? She seems to fight back like-for-like.

AG: Sure. It is very true. But not on the scale of Trump – let’s be clear of that. I am no partisan of Clinton – I do not care for either candidate. She lies, but you’ll see that he lies at about four to five times as much. It’s just he says extraordinary false and demeaning stuff…

RT: Russia again was brought up. Not long ago, the Russian president said his country has become a playing card in the campaign for both candidates. What are your thoughts on that?

AG: In a way that is an echo of the Cold War. I think fears of a new Cold War are overblown. It is a way for Democrats to appear tough, to wave this bogeyman about. It is clear that there has been some degree of meddling in the US elections process. The intelligence services claim it is Russia, but these are also often compromised intelligence services, and often it is filtered through a partisan lens. But what these allegations distract from is the fact that the US has this just atrocious history in the 20th century - especially WWII - of invading, instigating coups against scores of country, destabilizing. It has basically bombed invaded, destabilized, or supported coups against nearly half the governments, half the countries in the world since the beginning of the 20th century. So the US has no right to be pointing fingers. And the Democrats, the Clintons especially, are very complicit in this, as well.

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