believe me.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), Presidential Candidate: I have sat at that table in the Situation

Room.

DONALD TRUMP: Nobody knows the system better than me.

I alone can fix it.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: I'm going to close my campaign focused on opportunities for kids

and fairness for families.

DONALD TRUMP: Hillary failed on the economy.

Everything she touched didn't work out.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Even if you're totally opposed to Donald Trump, you may still have

some questions about me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Gwen Ifill is away tonight.

Welcome to this "PBS NewsHour" special coverage of the final presidential debate between Democrat

Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

The stage is set at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, at a time when the most recent

polls, both national and in battleground states, show a surge in support for Clinton, while

Trump's numbers have been slipping, especially since the release of the 2005 video where

he's heard using lewd language, boasting about being sexually aggressive.

The debate moderator, Chris Wallace of FOX News, announced ahead of time that there will

be six topics tonight, not necessarily in this order, debt and entitlement, immigration,

the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots, and fitness to be president.

To watch it all, joining me here at this table in Washington, our regular "NewsHour" contributors,

syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Amy Walter

of The Cook Political Report.

So, we're at the third one.

And it will all be over after this one.

David, do you expect them to go high or low?

DAVID BROOKS: You promise it will be over?

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID BROOKS: No, I expect her to go high, him to go low.

He's behind, and so he's got to try some desperate move.

And the trick for her will be to see if she can be strong enough to rebut whatever he

says, while still projecting some sense of positivity that will attract some people to

her.

My big question, though, for the country is, do we want to take a shower after this is

over?

Will we feel better about our country or worse?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Low or high, Mark?

MARK SHIELDS: I think Donald Trump won the nomination going away and prevailed in the

debates by exposing and playing to the vulnerabilities and perceived weaknesses of his opponents.

He has to have concluded after -- and he rattled them.

And he bullied them.

And he has to have concluded, after two debates, that that hasn't worked with Hillary Clinton.

After 26 debates with Barack Obama, she's far more formidable than anybody he faced

in the Republican primaries.

And I don't know.

I think he's just going to throw everything today.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Amy?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: And that's the challenge for the third debate

too.

Your home always told, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

His first debate performance, I think, in many ways sealed the fate of his entire candidacy.

Now, he can try to come back in the third debate and go after Hillary Clinton more aggressively.

But I don't know that that's going to make much of a difference, although this is what

a Republican strategist told me he needs to do tonight.

He just put in all caps, "E-mails, foundation, failed record, e-mails, foundation, failed

record, e-mails, foundation, failed record."

That is, I think, what you're going to hear from Donald Trump.

WALLACE: Good evening from the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las

Vegas.

I'm Chris Wallace of Fox News, and I welcome you to the third and final of the 2016 presidential

debates between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump.

WALLACE: This debate is sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The commission has designed the format: Six roughly 15-minute segments with two-minute

answers to the first question, then open discussion for the rest of each segment.

Both campaigns have agreed to those rules.

For the record, I decided the topics and the questions in each topic.

None of those questions has been shared with the commission or the two candidates.

The audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent.

No cheers, boos, or other interruptions so we and you can focus on what the candidates

have to say.

WALLACE: No noise, except right now, as we welcome the Democratic nominee for president,

Secretary Clinton, and the Republican nominee for president, Mr. Trump.

(APPLAUSE)

Secretary Clinton, Mr. Trump, welcome.

Let's get right to it.

The first topic is the Supreme Court.

You both talked briefly about the court in the last debate, but I want to drill down

on this, because the next president will almost certainly have at least one appointment and

likely or possibly two or three appointments.

WALLACE: Which means that you will, in effect, determine the balance of the court for what

could be the next quarter century.

First of all, where do you want to see the court take the country?

And secondly, what's your view on how the Constitution should be interpreted?

Do the founders' words mean what they say or is it a living document to be applied flexibly

according to changing circumstances?

In this segment, Secretary Clinton, you go first.

You have two minutes.

CLINTON: Thank you very much, Chris.

And thanks to UNLV for hosting us.

You know, I think when we talk about the Supreme Court, it really raises the central issue

in this election, namely, what kind of country are we going to be?

What kind of opportunities will we provide for our citizens?

What kind of rights will Americans have?

And I feel strongly that the Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American

people, not on the side of the powerful corporations and the wealthy.

For me, that means that we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women's

rights, on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community, that will stand up and say no to

Citizens United, a decision that has undermined the election system in our country because

of the way it permits dark, unaccountable money to come into our electoral system.

I have major disagreements with my opponent about these issues and others that will be

before the Supreme Court.

But I feel that at this point in our country's history, it is important that we not reverse

marriage equality, that we not reverse Roe v. Wade, that we stand up against Citizens

United, we stand up for the rights of people in the workplace, that we stand up and basically

say: The Supreme Court should represent all of us.

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.

And I look forward to having that opportunity.

I would hope that the Senate would do its job and confirm the nominee that President

Obama has sent to them.

That's the way the Constitution fundamentally should operate.

The president nominates, and then the Senate advises and consents, or not, but they go

forward with the process.

WALLACE: Secretary Clinton, thank you.

WALLACE: Mr. Trump, same question.

Where do you want to see the court take the country?

And how do you believe the Constitution should be interpreted?

TRUMP: Well, first of all, it's great to be with you, and thank you, everybody.

The Supreme Court: It's what it's all about.

Our country is so, so -- it's just so imperative that we have the right justices.

Something happened recently where Justice Ginsburg made some very, very inappropriate

statements toward me and toward a tremendous number of people, many, many millions of people

that I represent.

And she was forced to apologize.

And apologize she did.

But these were statements that should never, ever have been made.

We need a Supreme Court that in my opinion is going to uphold the Second Amendment, and

all amendments, but the Second Amendment, which is under absolute siege.

I believe if my opponent should win this race, which I truly 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.

But I feel that it's absolutely important that we uphold, because of the fact that it

is under such trauma.

I feel that the justices that I am going to appoint -- and I've named 20 of them -- the

justices that I'm going to appoint will be pro-life.

They will have a conservative bent.

They will be protecting the Second Amendment.

They are great scholars in all cases, and they're people of tremendous respect.

They will interpret the Constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted.

And I believe that's very, very important.

I don't think we should have justices appointed that decide what they want to hear.

It's all about the Constitution of -- of -- and so important, the Constitution the way it

was meant to be.

And those are the people that I will appoint.

WALLACE: Mr. Trump, thank you.

WALLACE: We now have about 10 minutes for an open discussion.

I want to focus on two issues that, in fact, by the justices that you name could end up

changing the existing law of the land.

First is one that you mentioned, Mr. Trump, and that is guns.

Secretary Clinton, you said last year, let me quote, "The Supreme Court is wrong on the

Second Amendment."

And now, in fact, in the 2008 Heller case, the court ruled that there is a constitutional

right to bear arms, but a right that is reasonably limited.

Those were the words of the Judge Antonin Scalia who wrote the decision.

What's wrong with that?

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CLINTON: Well, first of all, I support the Second Amendment.

I lived in Arkansas for 18 wonderful years.

I represented upstate New York.

I understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership.

It goes back to the founding of our country.

But I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation.

Because I support the Second Amendment doesn't mean that I want people who shouldn't have

guns to be able to threaten you, kill you or members of your family.

And so when I think about what we need to do, we have 33,000 people a year who die from

guns.

I think we need comprehensive background checks, need to close the online loophole, close the

gun show loophole.

There's other matters that I think are sensible that are the kind of reforms that would make

a difference that are not in any way conflicting with the Second Amendment.

You mentioned the Heller decision.

And what I was saying that you referenced, Chris, was that I disagreed with the way the

court applied the Second Amendment in that case, because what the District of Columbia

was trying to do was to protect toddlers from guns and so they wanted people with guns to

safely store them.

And the court didn't accept that reasonable regulation, but they've accepted many others.

So I see no conflict between saving people's lives and defending the Second Amendment.

WALLACE: Let me bring Mr. Trump in here.

The bipartisan Open Debate Coalition got millions of votes on questions to ask here, and this

was, in fact, one of the top questions that they got.

How will you ensure the Second Amendment is protected?

You just heard Secretary Clinton's answer.

Does she persuade you that, while you may disagree on regulation, that, in fact, she

supports a Second Amendment right to bear arms?

TRUMP: Well, the D.C. vs. Heller decision was very strongly -- and she was extremely

angry about it.

I watched.

I mean, she was very, very angry when upheld.

And Justice Scalia was so involved.

And it was a well-crafted decision.

But Hillary was extremely upset, extremely angry.

And people that believe in the Second Amendment and believe in it very strongly were very

upset with what she had to say.

WALLACE: Well, let me bring in Secretary Clinton.

Were you extremely upset?

CLINTON: Well, I was upset because, unfortunately, dozens of toddlers injure themselves, even

kill people with guns, because, unfortunately, not everyone who has loaded guns in their

homes takes appropriate precautions.

But there's no doubt that I respect the Second Amendment, that I also believe there's an

individual right to bear arms.

That is not in conflict with sensible, commonsense regulation.

And, you know, look, I understand that Donald's been strongly supported by the NRA.

The gun lobby's on his side.

They're running millions of dollars of ads against me.

And I regret that, because what I would like to see is for people to come together and