Trump’s bombshell: He rocks final debate with Clinton by REFUSING to promise to accept the results after bad-tempered 90 minutes begins AND ends without a handshake
- Third and final debate has finished between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada
- Candidates' families chose to skip customary handshake at Wednesday's debate amid increasing hostility between the two candidates
- The first real fireworks erupted over immigration, with Trump pointing out mothers in the audience whose children were killed by illegal immigrants
- Republican nominee had brought the Benghazi widows, as well as a Clinton sex-assault accuser and Obama's half-brother
- The tensest moment came during a discussion about claims by nine women that Trump manhandled them over the past three decades
- Trump claimed the alleged victims were either fame-hungry or came forward as part of Clinton's campaign
- Clinton spoke about appointing populist justices to the high court who would make decisions on the basis of individual rights – including rights for gays and lesbians
- Republican ended debate by refusing to promise to accept the results of the election - and candidates also skipped handshakes at the end of the debate
Donald Trump said during the third and final presidential debate on Wednesday that he may not accept the outcome of the November 8 election if it doesn't go his way.
'I will tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense,' Trump told Fox News Channel anchor Chris Wallace after he was pressed to declare that he would concede to Hillary Clinton if he loses.
Trump, who didn't shake Clinton's hand after the debate, revived charges that the election is 'rigged' in her favor by 'dishonest' reporters – and doubled down on allegations that voter fraud could run rampant.
He said 'millions' of people are on voter rolls 'who shouldn't be registered.' News reports and independent investigations have found deceased Americans with active registrations, along with illegal immigrants who use driver's licenses to obtain ballots.
'That's horrifying,' Clinton responded, aghast at the idea of a presidential candidate questioning an election's validity.
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The back-and-forth was part of a 90-minute mini-feud that covered abortion, gun rights, the Supreme Court, allegations of graft in the Clinton-led State Department, and sexual misconduct accusations lodged against Trump.
But the line of argument that riled Clinton the most was the suggestion that she might find herself with an asterisk next to her name if she wins an Electoral College victory.
The Democratic nominee blasted her Republican rival with a claim that his fallback position has always been to say a process is rife with bias when he doesn't come out on top.
She recalled his charges of 'rigged' outcomes in the 216 Iowa Caucuses, and of rulings in a lawsuit targeting his defunct Trump University seminar series.
The former reality TV star even claimed the Emmys were rigged when his television show lost three years in a row, Clinton claimed.
'Should have gotten it,' Trump huffed into his microphone, drawing laughter from a live audience at the University of Nevada-Law Vegas.
Trump was overall the stronger performer, dominating Clinton with the kind of emotional pressure that could drive undecided voters to side with strength instead of bureaucratese.
Minutes after the debate ended, his campaign sent out a fundraising email titled: 'Hillary is finished.'
Recent polls don't bear out that assessment: Clinton leads him by between 5 and 7 percentage points in most opinion surveys.
But the Trump campaign is counting on a groundswell of 'invisible' voters – first-time registrants who pollsters don't know to survey – to deliver him a victory that confounds them all.
Those voters, combined with a move in his direction from fence-sitters, remain his best chance to win in battleground states that will decide who moves into the White House in a little more than three months.
Wednesday's debate, a Nevada prizefight for the ultimate prize in global politics, marked the last time the pair will tussle on stage before the election that comes in just 20 days.
The evening's first fireworks erupted over immigration, but the tensest moment came during a discussion about claims by nine women that Trump manhandled them over the past three decades.
'Those stories have been largely debunked,' the Republican nominee said.
'I think it was her campaign that did it.'
'I didn't even apologize to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn't do anything!' he exclaimed.
'I think they either want fame, or her campaign did it.'
Trump cited a video sting by a conservative group called Project Veritas Action that caught organizers affiliated with the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee describing schemes to commit election fraud, and talking about sending provocateurs to Trump rallies in the hope of sparking fistfights.
'She's the one .. who caused the violence,' he said, suggesting her campaign could just as easily have set up his accusers.
'They paid them $1,500 and they're on tape.'
'It was all lies, and it was fiction,' he said.
Clinton pushed back, saying he had declared at rallies that the women were 'not attractive enough.'
'I did not say that!' Trump butted in.
Clinton had Trump's words memorized. He had said one accuser would not have been 'my first choice,' and urged his supporters to 'look at' another in order to judge her suitability.
'Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth,' she said.
'Nobody has more respect for women than I do,' Trump insisted.
'These stories have been largely debunked ... [and were] probably or possibly started by her and her very sleazy campaign.'
Trump also criticized the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation for what he said was a scheme to accept contributions from nations that expected preferential treatment from Mrs. Clinton when she was secretary of state.
'It is a criminal enterprise,' Trump boomed, after Wallace cornered Clinton on the pay-for-play claims.
'There is no evidence,' she objected. 'And there is a lot of evidence of the good work.'
Trump pressed Clinton to return donations from oppressive Middle Eastern regimes that abuse gays and women.
Trump said Clinton's philosophy would open the door for practices that amounted to near-infanticide, describing late-term partial-birth abortions as 'ripping babies' from mothers' wombs.
On gun rights, Trump said the Second Amendment is in peril and would be gutted under a Clinton presidency.
he cited the 'DC vs. Heller' decision – the case that guaranteed individual firearms ownership rights .. .she– saying Clinton 'was very angry about it. I watched.'
'Hillary was extremely upset, extremely angry.'
Clinton claimed she supports gun rights in principle, 'but I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation.'
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'I think we need comprehensive background checks, we need to close the online loophole, close the gun show loophole.'
'I see no conflict between saving people's lives and upholding the Second Amendment,' she said.
But Trump played a Trump card, citing Chicago's 'toughest gun laws in the United States' as proof that gun control doesn't work.
Chicagoans deal with 'more gun violence than in any other city,' he said.
'Saudi Arabia giving $25 million, Qatar, all of these countries,' he said. 'You talk about women and women's rights?'
'So, these are people that push gays off buildings, these are people that kill women and treat women horribly and yet you take their money!'
'So I'm going to ask you right now: Why don't you give back the money you've taken from certain countries that treat certain groups of people so horribly?' he demanded
Trump also hammered Clinton for her family foundation's mismanagement of resources and preference in contract awards to Clinton insiders, following Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake.
'I was in Little Haiti the other day, and they hate the Clintons,' he said. 'Because what's happened in Haiti with the Clinton Foundation is a disgrace. And you know it, and they know it, and everybody knows it.'
Clinton said the foundation had raised $30 million to go toward earthquake relief.
'They don't want your help anymore,' Trump cut in.
On immigration, Trump pointed out four mothers in the audience whose children were killed by illegal immigrants.
'We have some bad hombres here, and we have to get 'em out,' he said.
Trump has pledged to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border – a project he said Clinton favored when she was a senator.
'Hillary Clinton wanted the wall. Hillary Clinton fought for the wall in 2006, or thereabouts. Now she never gets anything done, so naturally the wall wasn't built,' he said.
Clinton mocked Trump for meeting with Mexico's president but failing to raise the issue.
'He choked,' she declared, claiming ‘I voted for border security.'
'And the wall,' Trump shot back.
'We either have a country or we don't. We are a nation of laws. We either have a border or we don't.'
Moderator Chris Wallace of the Fox News Channel read Clinton a quote from a speech she gave to a Wall Street bank, in which she reassured investors: 'My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders.'
'Thank you!' Trump exclaimed.
Clinton said the line was taken out of context: 'If you went on to read the rest of the sentence, I was talking about energy.'
'She wants open borders. People are going to pour into our country,' Trump blasted, citing Clinton's proposal to increase by 550 per cent the number of Syrian refugees allowed in.
In a fiery exchange about abortion rights, Trump said the 'Roe v. Wade' case would likely be overturned if he becomes president, because of his Supreme Court judicial philosophy.
'I think that will happen,' Trump said. 'If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that's really what will happen. That will happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the Court.'
Abortion laws 'will go back to the states' under his approach, he said, 'and the states will make a determination.
Clinton vowed to defend abortion laws, saying the U.S. government can't be allowed to make personal decisions about women's health.
She talked about meeting women who terminated pregnancies during their third trimester, calling their stories 'heartbreaking.'
'I do not think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions,' Clinton said.
Trump said Clinton's philosophy would open the door for practices that amounted to near-infanticide, describing late-term partial-birth abortions as 'ripping babies' from mothers' wombs.
On gun rights, Trump said the Second Amendment is in peril and would be gutted under a Clinton presidency.
he cited the 'DC vs. Heller' decision – the case that guaranteed individual firearms ownership rights .. .she– saying Clinton 'was very angry about it. I watched.'
'Hillary was extremely upset, extremely angry.'
Clinton claimed she supports gun rights in principle, 'but I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation.'
'I think we need comprehensive background checks, we need to close the online loophole, close the gun show loophole.'
'I see no conflict between saving people's lives and upholding the Second Amendment,' she said.
But Trump played a trump card, citing Chicago's 'toughest gun laws in the United States' as proof that gun control doesn't work.
Chicagoans deal with 'more gun violence than in any other city,' he said.
Some of angriest and most rapid-fire charges between the two candidates came during a clash about Russia.
Trump refused, as he has in previous debates, to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin – but said he wasn't his 'best friend.'
'I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good,' Trump said.
but Trump jabbed Clinton by saying Putin 'has no respect for her, he has no respect for our president.'
'Putin, from everything I see, has no respect for this person,' Trump said, gesturing to Clinton.
'Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States,' Clinton countered.
'You’re the puppet!' Trump counter-punched.
Wallace asked Trump point-blank whether or not he condemns hacking by Russia, which the Obama administration says was responsible for a series of embarrassing WikiLeaks releases targeting Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta.
'By Russia or anybody else!' Trump said – keeping alive the possibility that another country was behind it.
'Of course I condemn [it].'
The night's first topic, the U.S. Constitution, brought out major philosophical differences.
Clinton spoke about appointing populist justices to the high court who would make decisions on the basis of individual rights – including rights for gays and lesbians.
'We need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women's rights, on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community,' she urged.
'It is important that we not reverse marriage equality, that we not reverse Roe v. Wade,' she added, referring to the decision that legalized abortion.
'The Supreme Court should represent all of us,' Clinton insisted.
She also spoke against the Citizens United decision, a Supreme Court case that declared political donations are a form of constitutionally protected free speech, clearing the way for unlimited money to be injected into the U.S. electoral process.
Trump leaned on the U.S. Constitution, noting he has already released a list of 20 legal scholars and judges whom he would choose from. All of them are staunch conservatives.
'I believe if my opponent wins this race ... we will have a Second Amendment that is a very small replica of what it is right now,' Trump warned.
'The justices that I'm going to appoint will be pro-life, they will have a conservative bent, they are going to protect hte Second Amendment,' he said.
'They will interpret the Constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted ... I don't think we should have justices appointed who say what they want to hear. It's all about the Constitution.'
Clinton mentioned the Constitution – the Supreme Court's central domain – only once, in declaring that the U.S. Senate must hold an up-or-down vote on her picks.
Wallace, the son of famed newsman Mike Wallace and the first Fox News journalist to host a general election debate, lectured the live audience before television cameras turned on, imploring them not to clap or 'hoot and holler' in approval or disgust.
'Silence, please. Blessed silence,' he begged.
Star power in the audience on Wednesday included Republican Scott Baio of 'Joanie Loves Chaci' fame and progressive environmental activist and actor Ted Danson.
The Clinton campaign invited basketball legend and outspoken liberal Kareen Abdul-Jabbar to attend Wednesday's debate, along with Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman and billionaire Mark Cuban.
She also invited a pair of illegal immigrant teens, two labor union leaders and a vice president of the Navajo Nation.
Trump's guest list was designed to provoke. He brought along Malik Obama, the president's half-brother whom he counts as a supporter.
Patricia Smith, whose son perished in the 2012 Benghazi, Libya terror attack, is also in a guest seat, as is guerrilla video activist James O'Keefe.
O'Keefe's organization, project Veritas Action, released the controversial footage this week that resulted in the firing of two Democratic operatives with direct ties to the Clinton campaign.
Trump's campaign also made a seat available for Leslie Millwee, a former Arkansas TV news reporter who dropped a bombshell on Wednesday with the claim that former president Bill Clinton sexually molested her on three occasions in the 1980s.
Ultimately Milwee decided not to come, according to Trump Deputy Campaign Manager David Bossie. Asked if she didn't want to be part of the spectacle, he said: 'maybe.'
The third and final presidential debate, at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, has been the most hotly anticipated political event in America – at least since the last such smackdown.
Clinton won the first debate handily at Long Island's Hofstra University, as Trump tried to appear presidential but fell short of expectations.
But Trump roared back ten days ago in debate number two at Washington University in St. Louis, hammering his Democratic opponent with zinger after zinger designed to position her as a lying, corrupt career politician.
Clinton, meanwhile, dismissed Trump as a loose cannon whose voluminous tweets are proof that he can't handle the stress of the presidency without melting down.
The November 8 election will determine who controls the executive branch of the U.S. government for four years beginning on Inauguration Day in late January.
With less than three weeks to go before Americans cast ballots, polls showed Clinton widening her lead over the Republican nominee.
The 90-minute debate at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada may have been Trump's last chance to turn around a campaign that has been battered by a stream of allegations he groped and forced himself on women.
Both candidates on Tuesday jetted separately into this gambling and entertainment capital in the Nevada desert ahead of the high stakes encounter. Trump stayed at his eponymous hotel and Clinton at the Four Seasons, where she has stayed before.
The past two debates quickly degenerated into highly personal, mudslinging attacks that pushed substantive policy issues to the side.
An average of recent national polls shows Clinton with about 46 per cent support to 39 per cent for Trump and 6.4 per cent for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Trump predicts an electoral surprise, or 'new Brexit,' on November 8.
But as he's lost ground, the New York billionaire has attacked the election process itself, complaining of a massive conspiracy to rig the elections against him.
'The press has created a rigged system and poisoned the minds of the voters,' he said Tuesday.
'Either we win this election or we lose the country.'
Clinton is a former Arkansas and U.S. first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state.
Trump is a billionaire real estate developer who has considered running for president before but has never held public office.
By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com In Las Vegas, Nevada and Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com In Las Vegas, Nevada and Hannah Parry For Dailymail.com
