Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump traded insults in a bitterly contentious second debate that saw the Republican regain some of his footing following…

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump traded insults in a bitterly contentious second debate that saw the Republican regain some of his footing following a disastrous two weeks that had threatened to derail his populist campaign for the White House

After declining to shake hands as they came on stage, the candidates launched into some of the most acrimonious and personal exchanges seen on a presidential debate stage as they questioned each other’s fitness to serve as president

Mrs Clinton attacked her rival over the 2005 video where he discussed groping women in vulgar language, while Mr Trump vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her email scandal

Mrs Clinton said the video, which emerged on Friday, was more evidence that Mr Trump disrespected women and lacked the temperament to be president. Defending his words as “locker room talk,” Mr Trump denied having assaulted any women, and sought to turn the tables on her husband, Bill Clinton, accusing the former president of being one of the worst abusers of women

“If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine were words and his were action,” Mr Trump said

In heated exchanges on subjects from healthcare and tax policy to how the US should respond to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, Mrs Clinton repeatedly tried to rile her opponent as she had successfully done in the first debate

But Mr Trump was more disciplined than he had been two weeks ago. While Mrs Clinton argued that he was temperamentally unfit to be president, he focused on a core argument for his campaign team: that after 30 years in public service his rival is the epitome of the political status quo

“She doesn’t do anything about anything other than talk. With her, it’s all talk and no action,” Mr Trump said, resurrecting a line he often uses at campaign rallies

Mr Trump has been under intense pressure since the release on Friday of an Access Hollywood video, in which the former star of The Apprentice boasted in coarse language about trying to have sex with married women, groping women against their will, and claiming that beautiful women liked to kiss him just because he was a star. He also faced criticism after separate audio recordings captured him telling a shock jock that it was fine to call his daughter Ivanka a “piece of ass”

He apologised for his vulgar words in a video statement released late on Friday night. But at the same time, he suggested that his words were less egregious than Mr Clinton’s past sexual scandals, and accused Mrs Clinton of bullying her husband’s “victims”

Shortly before the debate, Mr Trump held a short press conference with three women who have accused Mr Clinton of sexual abuse, including Juanita Broaddrick, who has accused him of rape — a charge that the former president has denied. The women were in the audience for the debate, as were both candidates’ families

Mr Trump did not suffer significantly from the many controversial comments that he made over the past year, from describing Mexican immigrants as “rapists” to denigrating John McCain for being captured after he was shot down over Vietnam. But with only a month until the November 8 election, the video has sparked huge criticism, and forced many Republicans to withdraw their support for their presidential nominee. Several high-profile Republicans have also called on Mr Trump to withdraw from the race

Mr Trump has fallen in the polls since the first debate when his performance was widely panned. Mrs Clinton skilfully got under his skin over everything from his refusal to release his tax returns to his description of a former Latina beauty queen as “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”