All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC)

Here's an early idea of how the debate was felt to have gone, according to Twitter use.

03:38 - A CNN poll of debate watchers was slightly skewed toward democrats, with 41 percent Democrat and 26 percent  Republican. Despite that the poll concluded overwhelmingly that Clinton won the debate 62 to 27 percent.

The poll involved 521 registered voters, and had a margin of error of 4.5 points.

03:28 - A CNN focus group of 20 undecided voters in the key state of Florida felt, overwhelmingly, that Clinton won the debate - 18 thought Clinton won the debate. 

03:16 - DW correspondent Richard Walker:  It's going to be the Trump campaign that will be back to the drawing board. I think they might feel they've come out on the losing side."

02:55 - It's all over, but who do you think won? 

DW's Bruce Konviser thinks Clinton held her ground. "Coming into the debate the momentum was clearly on Trump's side as he had considerably narrowed the gap in the race over the past month.  If nothing else it would seem that Clinton stopped that momentum with a solid debate performance that showed her to be in command of the issues and at ease with herself."

02:38 - On the final question about whether they would support the other candidate, should their opponent win the presidency.

Clinton: "I support our democracy, but I certainly will support the outcome of this election. I hope the people understand the election is about you, so I hope you will get out and vote."

Trump says he would support Hillary Clinton if she wins the election.

02:35 - On Clinton lacking stamina: As soon as he travels to 112 countries, negotiates a peace treaty or a cease fire or even spends 11 hours testifying before Congress than he can talk to me about stamina. Trump retorts that Clinton has "experience, but bad experience."

02:33 - Trump says Clinton doesn't have the "stamina" to be president. "You have to be able to negotiate trade deals... with Japan, with Saudi Arabia... so many things you need to be able to do, and she doesn't have the stamina."

"I agree, she's got experience... but it's bad experience," Trump says.

For those taking part in #DebatesDrinkingGames - which mandate that alcohol be drunk in response to several debate cues and clichés - it's been a tough night.

02:27 - Clinton says the most troubling thing about Trump is his attitude to nuclear weapons. "Trump has said repeatedly he has no problem with other nations getting nuclear weapons, Japan, South Korea, even Saudi Arabia. It has been the policy of the US to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of other countries."

Trump says he agrees with Clinton on one thing - nuclear armaments are the single greatest threat. He says we are not keeping up with other countries in terms of nuclear weapons. Says China should go into North Korea and "solve that problem for us," referring to Pyongyang's nuclear program.

02:22 - Trump says his best attribute is his "winning temperament" and rounds on Clinton. "I have much better judgement than she does and I have a much better temperament than she does."

02:18 - Trump says he never supported the war in Iraq, Holt says the record shows otherwise.

02:13 - Clinton on "Islamic State": "There are a number of issues we should be addressing. I have put forth a plan to defeat ISIS, it includes going after them online, using the internet to prevent them from radicalizing people, but also to use air strikes to take out ISIS in Raqqa. I hope within a year we can push them out of Iraq. We have to make this a top priority and I would do everything possible to go after their leaders. We have got to defeat ISIS and disrupt their propaganda machine.

Trump: Obama and Clinton created a vacuum when the US troops left Iraq, says by taking all troops out they helped the rise of Islamic State. He says the US should have taken the oil from Iraq when it could.

02:10 - Hillary is actually tweeting as she debates. That's multi-tasking.

To be fair, so is Donald.

02:05 - Trump says Clinton aides started rumor about Barack Obama's birthplace. Clinton responds: On birther question: Just listen to what you heard. Donald admitted he tried to put the whole racist, birther lies to bed, but it can't be dismissed that easily. He persisted year after year, in perpetuating the myth that our first black president was not an American citizen.  He was sued twice by the justice department.

01:58 - Clinton: Murders are down in NYC. It is important that we learn about what has been affective and avoid responding to what sounds good. We need to do a better job of working with the communities and the police.

01:57 - Trump says the African American community has been let down by the Democrats

01:55 - Clinton responds to Trump's dark picture of the black community: I've heard Donald say this and it is really unfortunate that he takes such a negative view of the black community. There's a lot that we should be proud of but we do have to keep people safe. Stop and frisk was found to be unconstitutional in part because it was ineffective. Violent crime is half of what it was in 1991. We have had 25 years of very good cooperation but too many black and Latino men ended up in jail. It's a fact.

01:50 The debate has moved on to the law, guns and violence.

Trump on race and how to heal the divide: "We need law and order in our country," says he has endorsements from just about every police group in the US.  African Americans and Hispanics are "living in hell," communities are being "decimated by crime"

"We have to stop the violence, we have to bring back law and order."

Clinton: Unfortunately race determines too much: where people live, go to school and how they are treated in the criminal justice system. We have to do several things: restore trust between communities and police; be sure that police are well prepared to use force only when necessary. Everyone should respect the law and be protected by the law.  There are so many good police who equally want reform. And we have to get guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. We have to do two things, restore trust, work with the police, and tackle the plague of gun violence.

01:41 Clinton on Trump not paying contractors and employees: Do the thousands of people that you have stiffed not deserve at least an apology? You have taken business bankruptcy six times. Many businessmen have never taken bankruptcy.

01:39 - Trump says "I have a tremendous income," says it's about time someone running the country knows something about money. Adds the government and politicians like Clinton have "squandered" millions of dollars instead of investing in roads, schools and hospitals

01:37 - Clinton: For 40 years everyone running for president has released their tax returns. Why not? Maybe he's not as rich as he claims to be. Maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be.

More maybe he doesn't want the American people to know that he doesn't pay anything in federal income tax. (Trump: that makes me smart).

01:34 - Holt quizzes Trump about his failure to release his tax returns. Trump saying he has no problem releasing his information, but is waiting for an audit to finish before he releases them. Moderator Holt points out he is free to release tax information, despite the audit. In response,

Trump calls for Clinton to release her 33,000 emails.

01:28 - Trump on tax cuts for the wealthy: the wealthy are going to create jobs. He says companies can't bring money into the US from overseas because of red tape. Blames poor leadership.

Clinton: I don't see changes in he corporate tax you are referring to that would cause a repatriation of US dollars. You have proposed what is called the Trump loop-hole because it would benefit you. It is Trumped-up, trickle down. It does not work."
 

01:26 - Trump mocks Clinton for outlining on her website how she would fight Islamic State. Clinton responds: At least I have a plan 

01:23 - Richard Walker tweeted from a group of Clinton supporters.

01:20 - Clinton: Manufacturing jobs went up in the 1990s if we are going to look at facts. Let's not assume trade is the only part of the economy. We increased exports 30 percent when I was Secretary of State. 
 

Trump says "We have to do a much better job at keeping our jobs... and giving companies incentives to build new companies and expand." He says NAFTA was the "worst trade deal ever signed in this country" and says Clinton should have addressed it. 

Clinton's response?: "I was against it once it was negotiated. Donald I know you live in your own reality. My plan would create 10 million jobs and your plan would cost us jobs."

It's getting tetchy.

01:13 - Clinton: Trade is important. We are 5 percent of the world's population, so we need to trade with the other 95 percent.

We also need a tax plan that works. Donald's plan is trickle down economics all over again. It is Trumped up economics.

My father was a small business man. The more we can do for the middle class the better off we will be and that's the kind of economy I want.

01:10 - Donald Trump says the United States needs to create more jobs, saying "our jobs are fleeing the country, they're going to Mexico...we have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us, we have to stop our companies from leaving the United States."

01:09 - Clinton: The central question is what kind of country we want to be and what kind of country we will build. We need to build an economy that works for everyone. Innovation, new technology. Have to make the economy fairer, starting with raising minimum wage and equal pay.

Paid family leave and eased sick pay. How? By closing tax loop holes and making the rich pay their fair share of taxes.

01:05 - Moderator Lester Holt, of NBC News has introduced the candidates, who shook hands as they entered, and asked them about jobs.

00:55 - Just ahead of the debate, Trump tweeted a video attacking Clinton and questioning her trustworthiness.

A little earlier, Clinton had launched a Twitter assault of her own.

00:28 - Debate format: The 90-minute debate will be divided into six segments, each one 15 minutes long.

The first segment will focus on "America’s Direction." 

The second segment will focus on the economy - "Achieving prosperity." 

And the last segment will focus on "Securing America" (national security and foreign policy).

As the two presidential candidates prepare to take the debate stage the US electorate is, perhaps, more polarized than ever.

DW's Ines Pohl and Richard Walker asked people at Venice Beach, California, what they thought the term "presidential" meant"

The first of three scheduled presidential debates is taking place at Hofstra University on Long Island, 22 miles (35 kilometers) east of Manhattan.

The candidates - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump - both lightning rods for divisiveness for various sectors of society seem to have enhanced the divisions roiling the country.

Immigration and free trade continue to be central elements of a combustible campaign. A campaign made all the more inflammatory by the candidates themselves, both of whom have the highest negativity ratings of any presidential candidates in the history of such polling. But Trump has proven to be a proverbial flame thrower, insulting Mexicans, Muslims, US war veterans, and women, seemingly with impunity.

Despite his insults which would seem to alienate large swathes of the electorate, Trump seems to be capitalizing on large sectors of the electorate that are distrustful of his opponent and fed up with the status quo, both politically, economically and, perhaps, socially.

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