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Trump got more time to speak than Clinton — and still complained to the moderators

Trump accused the moderators of working against him. The numbers don’t back him up.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the second presidential debate. Saul Loeb/Pool via Getty Images

Donald Trump spent a lot of the second presidential debate complaining that the moderators were letting Hillary Clinton speak much more than him. At one point in the debate, Trump even described the event as “one on three” — “one” being Trump, and “three” being Clinton and debate moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz.

Well, the numbers are in, and it turns out Trump actually got to speak more than Clinton throughout the debate. Trump spoke for about 40 minutes and 10 seconds, while Clinton spoke for about 39 minutes and 5 seconds.

To some degree, Trump probably got to speak more because he spent part of the debate interrupting the moderators to complain about not speaking enough. Still, chances are speaking time would be roughly even if you accounted for that — showing that Trump really wasn’t getting the raw deal he claimed he was getting.


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