As support drops, Trump claims election is rigged

As allegations of sexual misbehavior continued, with a ninth accuser telling her story to the Guardian on Saturday, Donald Trump’s campaign allies joined his accusation of a “rigged election”, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani speaking in racially charged terms amid growing fears of a violent backlash from Trump supporters. The Republican presidential nominee furthered the charge, tweeting: “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places – SAD.” Such comments have raised the prospect that Trump will not concede if he loses in November, although his running mate, Mike Pence, said his party would accept the result. The Trump campaign meanwhile showed signs offracture over allegations of groping and inappropriate behavior, and as previously solid support drops in places like New Hampshire and Nevada, Republican leaders are bracing for civil war. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, isclucking like a chicken. A CNN poll-of-polls put Clinton at 47% to Trump’s 39%.

Trump warns of ‘rigged’ election as Giuliani makes racially charged claims

10/18/16:

Trump appoints controversial ‘poll watcher’

Donald Trump’s “election protection” effort will be run by Mike Roman, a Republican operative best known for promoting a video of apparent voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers outside a polling place in 2008. Roman is to oversee poll-watching efforts as Trump repeatedly questions the elections legitimacy, insisting, without evidence, that dead people and undocumented immigrants are voting in the United States.

Meanwhile, Melania Trump has insisted her husband was “egged on” to make controversial comments by fired NBC host Billy Bush. It was just “boy talk”, the Slovenian former model told CNN. And a billboard that reads “Donald Trump can’t read this, but he is scared of it” in Arabic script has appeared in Dearborn, Michigan.