Fight Night in Vegas: Trump and Clinton Set for Final Showdown Tonight

The final installment in the three-part series of Clinton-Trump face-offs will go down in the Entertainment Capital of the World.

By Liberty McArtor Published on October 19, 2016

The two major candidates for the White House will face-off one last time before Election Day, this time in Las Vegas, Nevada, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Much has happened for both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 10 days since their second debate on October 9.

From the looks of the past week-and-half — which has exposed everything from sexual assault accusations to evidence of protesters paid to incite violence — each candidate will have plenty of ammo for their arsenal, and plenty of weak spots to protect.

Weak Spots for Clinton: FBI Documents, WikiLeaks and Undercover Videos

Since the second presidential debate, a barrage of leaked emails, released FBI documents and undercover videos have revealed incriminating information about Clinton and those close to her campaign. (There’s also the lurid National Enquirer cover story out today featuring Hillary’s alleged former “Mr. Fix It,” but we’ll put that aside.)

Undercover Videos

Undercover videos from Project Veritas Action revealed that people connected to Clinton’s campaign frequently pay the “mentally ill” to incite violence at Trump events. During one riot instigated by such plants in Chicago, two police officers were injured.

“The key is initiating the conflict by having leading conversations with people who are naturally psychotic,” Scott Foval, National Field Director at Americans United for Change, said in the video.

FBI Documents

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Congress, the FBI released hundreds of pages of documents from their investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.

The documents contain an interview summary from a top FBI official who claimed that the State Department pressured him to declassify one of Clinton’s emails before it was released to the public, offering a “quid pro quo” in exchange.

The documents also include testimony from a security agent at the State Department who said Clinton’s treatment of other agents “was so contemptuous that many of them sought reassignment or employment elsewhere,” and that by the end of her time at the State Department, her protective detail was “staffed largely with new agents because it was difficult to find senior agents willing to work for her.”

WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks has delivered multiple batches of leaked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s office. Chief among the inflammatory revelations is the fact that people close to Clinton criticized Catholics for being insincere about their faith.

In an email to John Halpin of the left-wing Center for American Progress, Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri writes that conservatives who are Catholic only adhere to the faith because “they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.”

Halpin responds to Palmieri’s “excellent point” by suggesting that Catholics “throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiary'” only to sound sophisticated.

Another leaked email showed Podesta admitting that Clinton “has begun to hate everyday Americans.”

Weak Spots for Trump: Sexual Assault Allegations and Claims of Rigged Election

Trump has struggled to keep his poll numbers high in recent weeks, with a number of women accusing him of sexual misconduct and others accusing him of construing conspiracy theories about the election process being “rigged.”

Allegations

Days before the second presidential debate on October 9, a leaked 11-year-old video exposed Trump making lewd comments about women, including claims that he’d unsuccessfully attempted to have sex with a married woman (though already married to Melania) and that he could do whatever he wanted with women, including “grab them by the p****”, because he was famous.

Trump’s immediate defense was to point to former President Bill Clinton’s long history of sexual misconduct, calling out Clinton for allegedly silencing victims to protect her husband. He even invited three women who have accused Bill Clinton of rape and sexual assault to sit in the audience during the second debate and participate in a pre-debate press conference. (A fourth woman, whose rapist Hillary Clinton helped escape full justice was also there.)

Trump’s own accusers soon came forward, however. Now, a total of nine women have accused Trump of unwanted touching or sexual advances. Trump, who has received a lashing of harsh condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans for his comments about women, denies all the claims.

Melania came to his defense in an interview with CNN, saying that all claims of sexual assault should be dealt with in a court of law.

Rigged Election

Critics’ latest beef with Trump is his repetitive claim that the election is “rigged” by the mainstream media.

Critiques of his claims have been diverse, with some saying that such assertions undermine America’s democracy, some indicating that his claims are naive, and others saying that Trump’s claims are insulting to American journalists.

Even though President Barack Obama pronounced Trump’s claims of a rigged election “unprecedented,” United States presidential races have long been adorned with such allegations.

What’s at Stake

Just hours before the final showdown begins, Democrats and Republicans around the nation are undoubtedly anxious as they wait to see just what punches their nominees will pull.

Will Clinton nail Trump for his alleged mistreatment of women throughout the years? Will she criticize his claims of a “rigged” election as juvenile and desperate?

Will Trump nail Clinton for her evidenced contempt for Catholics, “everyday Americans” and her own security detail, corruption at the State Department, and planting violent rioters at his rallies?

And the biggest question of all: Will either candidate get around to discussing policy after addressing the tangled web of scandal surrounding both their campaigns?

Perhaps it’s appropriate that the final debate of the 2016 election season is happening in Sin City.

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