In contrast to the bombast of the last few weeks, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton maintained measured tones for long stretches as they clashed in their third and final presidential debate Wednesday.
After taking the stage in Las Vegas without a customary handshake for the second debate in a row, the two candidates began with a low-key discussion of the Supreme Court's position on gun rights and abortion, which then gave way to a more combative exchange on the topic of Russia and Wikileaks -- but with few of the sustained personal attacks of previous debates.
However, things got testy midway through the debate when Clinton attacked Trump for using massive deductions to avoid paying personal income taxes for a number of years.
"We have undocumented immigrants in this country who pay more in income taxes than a billionaire," she said.
In response, Trump said that when Clinton was in the Senate, she supported those very tax laws for the benefit of her wealthy supporters.
"If you don't like what I did, you should have changed the law," Trump said.
On the topic of recent accusations made against Trump by several women who say he made unwanted sexual advances in past years, Trump called them "fiction" that was likely orchestrated "by her campaign."
"I believe that she got these people to come forward to get their ten minutes of fame," he said.
Another heated moment came when Trump delivered an aside in reponse to a Clinton one-liner.
"My social security contribution will go up, as will Donald's -- assuming he can't find a way to get out of it," Clinton said in response to a question about social security entitlements.
"Such a nasty woman," Trump said.
Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News began the debate with a question about gun rights, to which Clinton made a case for responsible gun regulation, while Trump pledged to protect gun rights in all cases. Similarly, Trump spelled out his objection to abortion while Clinton laid out her support for broad abortion rights. Unlike the fireworks of the previous debates, in both cases the discussion proceeded calmly and with few interruptions.
The candidates' tempers flared slightly when Clinton said Trump choked when he failed to bring up his Mexican wall proposal during his meeting with the Mexican president earlier this year, and Trump responded by accusing Clinton of supporting the building of a wall in 2006.
Perhaps the biggest clash came after Clinton was questioned about free-market comments attributed to her by Wikileaks. Clinton said the real issue regarding the leaks is that Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, is trying to influence the election with Trump's support.
"He has no respect for her, he has no respect for our president," Trump said.
"That's because he'd rather have a puppet for president," Clinton responded.
The discussion then returned to more measured tones when the candidates outlined their contrasting views of the economy, with Clinton supporting higher taxes on the wealthy and Trump calling for increased trade regulations.
Toward the end of the evening Wallace, after pointing out that Trump's daughter Ivanka and his running mate Mike Pence both said they would respect the outcome of the election, asked Trump: "Will you absolutely accept the results of this election?"
"I will look at it at the time," Trump replied.
Like the first presidential debate at Hofstra University last month, Wednesday's debate was divided into six 15-minute segments, each starting with a question from the moderator. Each candidate had two minutes to respond, followed by an open discussion.
A record 84 million viewers tuned in nationwide to watch the first debate, making it the most-watched presidential debate in history. Around 63 million viewers watched the second debate earlier this month.
The event, at the University of Nevada, was carried on all Spectrum News networks including TWC News and NY1, with online fact-checking provided at http://twcnews.com/factcheck.