Donald Trump's cowardly debate performance: Kirsten Powers

Just a few weeks ago, Trump’s son Eric was praising his father for pulling his punches regarding Bill Clinton’s personal life. "I think that took a lot of courage” to not confront Hillary Clinton about allegations against her husband, Eric Trump said. “In so many regards [he took] the high ground and kept the high road.”

Not so tonight. At the second presidential debate — a town hall forum moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and CBS’s Martha Radditz — Trump plunged into the gutter with elan.

Trump did what he had only a week prior said was too cruel to do: he made an issue of sexual assault claims against Bill Clinton. There was a press conference with the women, front row seating for them in the debate hall followed by verbal broadsides against Hillary, who he asserted had enabled her husband’s bad behavior.

Never mind that, according to ABC news, Donald Trump “once called Bill Clinton's accusers 'terrible,' 'unattractive' and former president 'terrific.'“

Never mind that approximately five minutes ago Trump was patting himself on the back for not “going there” in the first debate. “I did hold back. I thought it was just inappropriate to say what I was really thinking I would say,” he said in a town hall on Thursday night in Sandown, New Hampshire. “I’d much rather have it be on policy and I don’t like getting into the gutter.”

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Yet to the gutter he went.

Eric Trump had previously said the reason his father didn’t bring up the 42nd president's alleged behavior was because he saw Chelsea Clinton sitting in the front row. That didn’t stop him tonight.

What changed? Simple: Trump’s campaign is in a free fall. After a lewd tape was released showing a 59-year-old Trump talking about grabbing “p---y” and kissing women against their will (also known as sexual assault) Trump opted for a slash and burn strategy against Hillary Clinton.

Tonight Trump reiterated that he was merely engaging in “locker room talk” and said his words did not describe sexual assault. Even Rudy Guiliani knows that’s not true. When asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" if Trump's comments described sexual assault, Trump’s top defender said, "That's what he was talking about, you know, whether it happened or not I don't know. How much exaggeration was involved in that? I don't know.”

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Maybe he should find out. But Giuliani doesn’t care because nothing trumps his hatred of Clinton.

It’s the hatred that was on display tonight as a growling, scowling Trump paced the stage like an angry lion as Hillary answered questions. One would think a man who has been lambasted for his predatory behavior all week might not lurk around behind his female opponent.

He was nasty, interrupting her and the debate moderators, whining about being treated unfairly, spitting out accusations such as “She’s a disaster. She’s a disaster” as though that comprises an argument. Like some petty third-world dictator, he bellowed at Clinton that if he become president "you'd be in jail." (Fact check: Presidents don't send people to jail.) And in classic projection, Trump accused Hillary of having "tremendous hate in her heart.

Clinton was able and calm and informed. He was bullying and incoherent, and yet the insta-analysis following the debate seemed to be settling on the notion that it was either or draw or a slight Trump advantage. This is the soft bigotry of low expectations. Let’s stop grading Trump on a curve. By any measure Hillary won tonight.

Kirsten Powers, author of The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech, writes often for USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter @KirstenPowers.

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