11 memorable moments from the final debate between Clinton and Trump

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump entered the final U.S. presidential election debate on Wednesday night trailing in most polls, and hoping a strong performance might shift the race. Here are some of the more memorable moments from that debate.

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Trump refuses to say if he’ll accept the election result: ”What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense.”

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Moderator expresses concern Trump is undermining American democracy: ”But, sir, there is a tradition in this country — in fact, one of the prides of this country — is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner.”

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Hillary Clinton mocks him as a conspiracy-theorist: ”He claims the court system and (a) federal judge (are) rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him… This is a mindset. This is how Donald thinks. And it’s funny, but it’s also really troubling… We’ve been around for 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections… He’s talking down our democracy. And I, for one, am appalled that somebody who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position.”

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The candidates accuse each other of being Vladimir Putin’s pawns. During an exchange on alleged Russian interference in the election, Trump says Putin has no respect for Clinton. She responds: ”That’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.” Trump replies: ”No puppet. No puppet… You’re the puppet!”

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Abortion. Trump promises to appoint anti-abortion judges, and leave policy decisions to states. He uses a graphic image to condemn late-term abortions: ”What Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.” Clinton calls that scare rhetoric, and says late-term decisions are generally made in duress amid health crises.

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‘Bad hombres’. Clinton calls his hardline immigration stand un-American, in that it could deport millions without official papers and divide families: ”That’s an idea that would rip our country apart.” Trump responds by referring to four of his guests in the crowd, who lost relatives killed by violent undocumented foreigners: “We have some bad hombres here — and we’re gonna get ’em out.”

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‘He choked’. Clinton teases her opponent for speaking so frequently about Mexico paying for a border wall, but not when he met Mexico’s president: ”He didn’t even raise it — he choked. And then he got into a Twitter war.”

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‘Such a nasty woman’ — Trump muttered that late in the debate, after Clinton suggested the billionaire businessman might try wriggling out of paying the new employee payroll benefit she wants to introduce.

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Trump denies sexually mistreating women. He also denies that he ever insinuated his accusers were too unattractive for him to approach — which he certainly appeared to do last week. Clinton says: ”Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, and I don’t think there is a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.”

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Clinton Foundation. She defended her family foundation, which she said helped 11 million people get HIV-AIDS treatment and improved schools in poorer countries. Trump derided it as a patronage tool: ”I was (in) Little Haiti the other day in Florida. And I want to tell you, they hate the Clintons, because what’s happened in Haiti with the Clinton Foundation is a disgrace.”

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On Syrian refugees. Trump called her plan to increase refugee numbers a Trojan horse, with potential terrorists entering the country. Clinton defended refugees saying: ”I am not going to slam the door on women and children. That picture of that little four-year-old boy in Aleppo, with the blood coming down his face while he sat in an ambulance, is haunting. And so we are going to do very careful, thorough vetting.”