Clinton, Trump clash over role of Supreme Court

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton opened their third and last U.S. presidential debate on Thursday, October 20 with a substantive policy discussion on the Supreme Court and the top issues it faces.

In contrast to the fiery personal attacks of the first two debates, Clinton and Trump had a sharp but issues-based exchange on abortion, gun rights and immigration to start the 90-minute showdown.

Clinton promised to appoint justices who would uphold a woman’s right to abortion laid out in the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision, while Trump promised to appoint what he called “pro-life” justices who would overturn the decision.

The Supreme Court should represent all of us,” Clinton said. “That’s how I see the Court, and the kind of people that I would be looking to nominate to the Court would be in the great tradition of standing up to the powerful, standing up on behalf of our rights as Americans.”

Trump said he would appoint a Supreme Court justice who would protect American gun rights.

“I believe if my opponent wins this race, which I really don’t think will happen, we will have a Second Amendment, which will be a very, very small replica of what it is right now,” he said.

Trump has said in the past that Clinton wants to “essentially abolish” the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing a right to bear arms.

Clinton said she supports gun rights, but wants additional regulations on guns, citing examples of children being hurt or killed in gun accidents.