Video: 'George W. Bush and Al Gore 3rd Presidential Debate 2000'

(Tuesday, October 17, 2000, 9:00-10:30 p.m. EDT; during the 2000 United States presidential election) — In their final confrontation before the nation’s voters tonight, Vice President Al Gore cited accomplishments throughout his public career as evidence that he is a champion of working Americans, while Texas Governor George W. Bush cast himself as a leader from outside Washington with a record of uniting Republicans and Democrats.

The candidates recalibrated their approaches from the first two debates as they prowled a red-carpeted stage at Washington University in St. Louis and fielded questions from ordinary voters.

Gore, who had been criticized even by his own supporters as too brash in the first debate and too restrained in the second, was newly feisty but stopped himself from appearing too combative.

Bush, who seemed to have less to prove in this debate, adopted a more earnest and often subdued demeanor as he tried to play the statesman.