NEW YORK—Fox News’ Chris Wallace worked hard to keep the final presidential debate substantive with tough questions to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but it was the simplest of queries that extracted the biggest headline.
Noting Trump’s claims Wednesday night that the election was being rigged against him, Wallace asked the Republican whether he would accept the results win or lose, pointing out GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence had said that he would. When Trump answered that “we will look at it at the time,” Wallace seemed incredulous.
While occasionally wordy, Wallace’s questions seemed designed to get the candidates talking and he mostly let them go at it. The candidates—typical for most debates—bulldozed past his questions at times but there seemed fewer interruptions than in the previous two debates.
The first debate, moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, reached a record-setting audience of 84 million people. Last week’s second debate with CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz sharing the journalists’ duties reached 66.5 million. Ratings for Wednesday’s debate will be released Thursday.
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