Things got awkward quickly when Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton declined to shake hands prior to Sunday’s presidential debate.
Trump and Clinton hit the debate stage less than 48 hours after secret audiotapes of the GOP nominee making lewd sexual comments surfaced. ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper moderated the debate from Washington University in St. Louis. While candidates traditionally shake hands before the start of a televised debate, Clinton and Trump strode to the mid-stage area and nodded at each other without a handshake.
The debate wasn’t exactly friendly after the non-handshake. Trump fought with the moderators on a regular basis, told Clinton she’s be in jail if he were president and the two accused each other of lying several times.
However, the pair did shake hands at the end of the debate, after a final questioner from the audience asked whether there was anything either candidate admired about the other. Clinton said she respected Trump’s children; Trump called Clinton “a fighter.”
On Friday, The Washington Post published a videotape of Trump on a hot mic boasting to Billy Bush about kissing, groping and having sex with women, saying that “when you’re a star, they let you do anything … I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he said. “Grab ’em by the p-y.”
Clinton said she has thought about the controversial Trump tape for the last 48 hours.
“With prior Republican nominees for president, I disagreed with them, politics, policies and principals, but I never questioned their fitness to serve. Donald Trump is different,” Clinton said. “I said starting back in June that he was not fit to be president and commandeer in chief. ”
She continued: “What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women. What he thinks about women. What he does to women. And he has said that the video doesn’t represent who he is. But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is.”
Trump responded to Clinton, “It’s just words, folks. It’s just words.”
Check out the video above.