--- ---  # Watch Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Decline to Shake Hands at the Second Debate by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 10, 2016 1:28 AM UTC  Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton take the stage at the start of the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016. Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton take the stage at the start of the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016.Rick Wilking—Reuters by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 10, 2016 1:28 AM UTC When Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton [met Sunday to debate](http://time.com/4523324/second-presidential-debate-donald-trump-town-hall/?xid=homepage) they did not engage in the customary handshake between presidential candidates. Tension was high as the two appeared on stage at Washington University in St. Louis after lewd comments Trump made about women in 2005 were released on Friday. The Republican nominee’s poll numbers have taken a nose dive since the first debate between the two. Trump now [trails Clinton](http://time.com/4523324/second-presidential-debate-donald-trump-town-hall/?xid=homepage) in nearly every swing state. Watch video of the moment above. Presidential Debate: Watch Clinton, Trump Not Shake Hands ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4524398/second-presidential-debate-clinton-trump-handshake/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4524398/second-presidential-debate-clinton-trump-handshake/"},"headline":"Watch Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Decline to Shake Hands at the Second Debate","datePublished":"2016-10-10T01:28:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:05:34.830Z","description":"The two refused to shake hands before Sunday's debate","url":"https://time.com/4524398/second-presidential-debate-clinton-trump-handshake/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea9c29978f677ea9/6988a949fb4eac680788f69e/clinton-trump-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea9c29978f677ea9/6988a949fb4eac680788f69e/clinton-trump-handshake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL","caption":"Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton take the stage at the start of their presidential town hall debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., October 9, 2016. REUTERS/","creditText":"Rick Wilking—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4524398/second-presidential-debate-clinton-trump-handshake/","name":"Watch Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Decline to Shake Hands at the Second Debate"}}]}] ```