In 2012, during the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the two men bickered testily about whether or not Mr Obama had used a specific turn of phrase. It was talked of as a turning point.

This year, during the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, one candidate threatened to throw the other in jail, and then accused the moderators of being in league with his opponent.

Trump’s task was to claw back some respectability after the most disastrous fortnight for any presidential campaign in modern times, and Republicans may have found him sufficiently plausible in the last hour to decide against trying to drop him from the ticket.

What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? Show all 8 1 /8 What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On the leaked tape from 2005 where he talks about sexually assaulting women “I'm very embarrassed by it, I hate it, but it's locker room talk. It's one of those things. I will knock the hell out of Isis” Getty What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On Hillary Clinton “I hate to say it but if I win I'm going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. There has never been so many lies, so much deception. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” Rex What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On Bill Clinton “What he's done to women, there's never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that's been so abusive to women.” AP What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On whether his alleged opposition to Iraq War had been disproven "It’s not debunked. It’s not debunked." Getty What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On exploiting tax loopholes "I absolutely used it, and so did Warren Buffett, and so did George Soros and so did many people who Hillary is getting money from." Getty What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On claims he's sexist “I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.” Reuters What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On what he respects about Hillary Clinton “I will say this about Hillary - she doesn't quit, she doesn't give up. I tell it like it is. She's a fighter.” Reuters What did Donald Trump say during the second presidential debate? On his controversial immigration policies "It’s called extreme vetting. We’re going to areas like Syria, where they are coming in by the tens of thousands because of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton wanting to allow a 550 per cent increase [of refugees] over Obama. People are coming into this country. We have no idea who they are, where they are from and what their feelings are about this country." Getty

But that first 20 minutes was biblical. When he wasn’t lurking angrily like a man waiting in line for the only loo at Nando’s, Trump was spitting venom at Clinton, referring to her husband's alleged victims in the studio audience, or repeating his mantra regarding the Tic Tac tape: “locker room talk, locker room talk, locker room talk…”

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If he thought he could flap the unflappable former Secretary of State, a woman who has spent several decades weathering worse, then he was mistaken. She lobbed a few accusations of her own, tying the Trump campaign to Russian hackers and to a rise in racist bullying.

All the stroppy talk of Clinton’s emails and Bill's purported historical abuses may have fed the rage of Trump’s base, but it’s unlikely to have won over any soccer moms disgusted by his comments about women, or veterans troubled by his attacks on the Khan family, or low-income workers turned off by his tax returns.

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In what might have been one more first for a televised presidential debate, the property developer even threw his own running mate under the bus, suggesting he had never discussed the Syrian crisis or US-Russian relations with Mike Pence, and that he disagreed with him on both issues.

Clinton, when not parrying her rival’s insults, delivered some semi-specifics about Obamacare, the tax code, fighting Isis, tackling Islamophobia, energy and the Supreme Court. But the policy differences are almost beside the point. As this spectacle so starkly demonstrated, voters have a choice between a presidential candidate and a malevolent child.