The October 8 debate occurred after a controversial week for both presidential candidates. Donald Trump was under heavy criticism for coarse sexual remarks made about women in a leaked video from 2005. Hillary Clinton was under scrutiny after Wikileaks released transcripts of paid speeches she made to members of Wall street, revealing that her private political views differ from what she says on the campaign trail.

While Clinton’s controversy did come up during the debate, most of the first hour was focused on the comments Trump made in the leaked video. Relative to the first debate, both candidates avoided giving straight answers to questions about allegations, and strayed away from questions asked by the audience and moderators to hit their selling points on why they are qualified to be president.

The first question, asked by a preselected, undecided voter, was whether  the candidates believed that they were handling their campaigns in a role model way for America’s youth. Both candidates strayed from the original question, a precursor for what would be most of the debate. Trump somehow diverted to foreign policy and defeating ISIS.

Anderson Cooper, one of the two debate moderators, pushed Trump to stay on topic and give a straight answer on the comments he made in the video. Trump stated that he was sorry for the derogatory remarks but was dismissive of the significance they had for voters to gauge his quality as a presidential candidate.

In regard to his tax returns, Trump switched the focus of the issue from himself to the Clintons, in this case Bill Clinton’s controversial infidelity.  Trump maintained that his statements were, “…locker room talk.” Continuing, he said, “I’m not proud of it. … If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse, mine are words and his was action. … There’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women.”

Clinton took advantage of the opportunity the leaked video presented to show voters that Trump was unqualified to be running for president. “With prior Republican nominees for president, I disagreed with them… But I never questioned their fitness to serve. Donald Trump is different. What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women… I think it’s clear to anyone … that it represents exactly who he is, because we’ve seen this throughout the campaign,” said the former Secretary of State.

After quarrelling about each other’s lack of qualifications for the first half hour, the moderators forced the debate onward. What followed were questions on the candidates’ domestic and foreign policies, specifically the Affordable Care act and taxes, Syrian refugees, the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, American Muslims, and renewable energy.

Not surprisingly, the two candidates had polarizing views on America’s future role in the Middle East and how to handle the Syria problem.

In regard to ISIS, Clinton stated that the United States should continue to employ special forces in the region, and strengthen relations with the Kurdish militias in both Iraq and Syria. Though the moderators did not ask a follow up on how she would handle Turkey’s likely hostile reaction to the United States being allied with the Syrian Kurds.

Clinton has been a vocal adversary to the Syrian regime, and supports the United States current role in attempting to oust president Bashar al-Assad by supporting opposition fighters. She believes that the United States should give more support to the rebels in Aleppo to lift Assad’s siege.

Trump plans to take a different approach in Syria. Disagreeing with his running mate’s position, Trump believes that ISIS is the priority, not Assad. He cited Clinton’s contentious role in the Libyan Revolution, and the current state of Syria as proof that arming rebels is ineffective and can create a more hazardous post revolution political state.

“She talks in favor of the rebels; she doesn’t know who the rebels are. Every time we talk rebels, we’re arming people. And you know what happens? They end up being worse,” said Trump.

The debate made for good entertainment. Filled with snarky interruptions and rebuttals, the focus of the night, and likely the deciding factor on who “won,” was on the candidates’ personalities, not on merit of the claims they made.

Only one presidential debate remains at the University of Nevada, October 19.