At the end of a weekend of intense speculation that Donald Trump might or should pull out of the presidential race over the controversy about his decade-old comments about women, Trump came out aggressively and hammered his opponent Hillary Clinton’s honesty and character in Sunday’s second presidential debate. It was "a freewheeling and raucous debate," according to Fox News, "where the candidates frequently accused each other of distorting the truth."

MSNBC's Chris Matthews called the debate a draw and moaned, “I don’t think this was a great night for American politics,” but MSNBC's Chuck Todd said that Trump was better this time around, and that Hillary seemed "rattled." CNN's Jake Tapper said that Trump started off "erratic and going off the rails," but turned things around.

Hillary claimed to be trying to take the “high” road, while Trump stayed on offense for much of the 90 minutes in St. Louis. He again apologized for his comments in the recently-released 2005 audio about grabbing women without their consent, but said he’s never done the things he discussed in that audio. He downplayed it: "I’m very embarrassed by it, I hate it – but it’s locker room talk,” Trump said. “I have great respect for women.”

“If you look at Bill Clinton," Trump continued, "far worse – mine are words. His was action. Bill Clinton was abusive to women. Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously.”

Hillary challenged Trump’s accusations as “not right” and stated that the Trump we hear in that 2005 audio “represents exactly who [Trump] is.” “We have seen this throughout the campaign,” she said, recalling his negative comments toward women, Muslims and Latinos. “Yes, this is who Donald Trump is.”

In terms of who Hillary Clinton is, Trump nailed it: “We have a divided nation. And believe me, people like her — she has tremendous hate in her heart. And when she said ‘deplorables,’ she meant it. She’s got tremendous hatred.”

As Fox News notes, "The tensions were on full display even before the debate started – the two candidates did not shake hands as they walked out, though did at the end. The tone almost instantly grew caustic,  and flared when Trump went after Clinton for deleting thousands of emails from her time as secretary of state."

Trump said he would request a special prosecutor to “look into your situation” -- a threat that CNN commentator and "former" Communist Van Jones said was "a low point in American democracy" -- and that she should be ashamed of herself for her email abuse and for her intimidation of husband Bill's sexual assault victims. Hillary responded that "it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump isn't in charge of the law in this country."

With devastating timing, Trump shot back: “Because you’d be in jail.” The audience went wild.

See that moment in the video above, the best 16 seconds of the entire debate.