Why Hillary Clinton dodged Trump’s accusation about Bill Clinton, and other barbs | McClatchy Washington Bureau

When Donald Trump raised the issue of her husband’s treatment of women, she tried to change the subject.

When Trump accused her of harboring “tremendous hate in her heart,” she sat back on her stool, hands folded in her lap, a smile flickering across her face.

Even when Trump said he’d appoint a prosecutor to investigate her, perhaps to send her to prison, she did not directly respond.

Hillary Clinton dodged Trump’s most pointed barbs throughout their second debate Sunday, a strategy designed both to avoid prolonging any discussion of issues that might be bad for her – such as the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on her watch – while also hoping that Trump would talk himself into trouble, particularly on issues such as women.

“She was really focused on trying to talk to the voters in the room and across the country,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a Clinton supporter. “She wasn’t going to follow him down every rabbit hole.”

Attempting to stay above the fray was clearly a calculated move, said University of Michigan debate coach Aaron Kall.

“You don’t want to get into a race to the bottom with Trump,” Kall said. “Trump’s specialty is being a counterpuncher.”

He noted, too, that with Trump bleeding support from his own party and his numbers sagging, Clinton didn’t “have to take as many risks. She had the benefit of being in the lead.”

Clinton had signaled this approach a few days earlier, when a 2005 audiotape surfaced of the Republican presidential nominee bragging about groping women. Clinton and her surrogates said little about the tape, content to let Trump twist and watch Republicans repudiate him, believing that his mouth may be his own worst enemy.

In the hours before the debate Sunday, Clinton chose not to engage in a detailed response when Trump appeared in a Facebook Live with three women who’ve accused Bill Clinton of rape or unwanted sexual advances and a fourth who says Hillary Clinton demeaned her when she defended in court the man accused of raping her.

Instead, Clinton tweeted a video of Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention pledging, “When they go low, we go high.”

And when Trump, who’d invited the women to the debate hall, defended his boasts about groping women as mere locker room talk compared with Bill Clinton’s “abuse,” Clinton said it was his choice to raise the issue rather than talk about his plans for the country.

“He gets to run his campaign any way he chooses,” she said, again citing Michelle Obama’s remarks.

At one point, Trump argued that Clinton had ignored 600 requests for help from U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Libya.

“She said, ‘Who is going to answer the call at 3 o’clock in the morning?’ Guess what? She didn’t answer it,” Trump said.

She did not answer Trump, instead pivoting to talk about her response to 9/11.

“I told people that it would be impossible to be fact-checking Donald all the time,” Clinton said at another point. “I’d never get to talk about anything I want to do and how we’re going to really make lives better for people.”

The tone was struck early in the debate: The two candidates strode onstage, greeted each other warily and began the debate without the customary handshake.

Trump told Clinton she had “tremendous hate” in her heart for labeling his supporters “deplorable” and suggested he’d direct his attorney general to investigate Clinton’s decision as secretary of state to use a private email server.

“There has never been so many lies, so much deception,” he said. “There has never been anything like it, and we’re going to have a special prosecutor.”

Clinton laughed and said it was “awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump” wasn’t in charge of the U.S. legal system.

“Because you’d be in jail,” Trump retorted.

She mocked him again: “Donald. I know you’re into big diversions tonight, anything to avoid talking about your campaign and the way it’s exploding and the way Republicans are leaving you.”

Trump’s campaign argued that their candidate had Clinton “rattled” the entire evening.

“She can program, she can study lines, but when you get two or three questions deep, the short-circuit happens. She can’t relate,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said. “She was knocked off her game.”