We interrupt this report on a hard-nut Milwaukee sheriff declaring "it's pitchforks and torches time", and grassroots calls for a coup should Hillary Clinton win the US election, to bring news of a secondary implosion within the imploding Trump campaign.
A majority of Americans reject Donald Trump's blanket denial that he is a sexual predator. But on Sunday, the Republican candidate's two most ardent surrogates fell out awkwardly on morning TV - former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani stands by his man; but former House speaker Newt Gingrich thinks Trump and his response to the myriad accusations are "stupid".
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Trump: 'I am a victim' of great smear campaign
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continued to deflect new sexual assault allegations against him at a rally on Friday claiming that he is a 'victim'.
Giuliani dissembled, lamely attempting to leapfrog an issue that has become a cathartic moment for Americans: "Should we be beyond that now? Should we be beyond Hillary Clinton's past, Donald Trump's past?"
But Gingrich's frustration was evident as he spoke of the "big Trump", whom he hailed as a historic figure, and of the "little Trump", who he seemed to concede has lost the election.
"The little Trump frankly gets out - is stupid. I don't defend him when he wanders off. I've told him over and over. Presidents have to be disciplined, and in that sense Hillary is probably better trained to be president."
Trump's running mate Mike Pence also rebuked Trump for attacking his accusers. But he went out on a limb, arguing the charges against Trump were unsubstantiated and that the "grab them by the pussy" video, in which Trump admits that he can't help harassing women, was "just talk".
But when Trump surrogate and congressman Renee Ellmers tried to fob off the allegations as a "he-said, she-said situation", CNN's Jake Tapper pulled her up, noting: "To correct you, it's a 'he-said, she-said, she-said, she-said, she-said, she-said, she-said, she-said, she-said, she-said' situation."
On Sunday, after a week of sledging the media, corporate America and elements of his own party as Clinton co-conspirators, Trump tweeted a claim of victimhood: "Polls close, but can you believe I lost large numbers of women voters based on made-up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Media rigging election!"
![Donald Trump in action during the second debate.](/web/20161017150347im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/z/9/a/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs3otx.png/1476707579422.jpg)
The stage is set for a cataclysmic face-off between Trump and Clinton in the last of three candidates' debates on Wednesday.
Trump goes on stage in Las Vegas as a nine-times accused and a self-admitted predator and, in all his flailing, a bizarre contradiction compounds his crisis - he demeans his accusers as "horrible, horrible liars", so ugly that he would not be attracted to them; and he demands that they be shut down; but at the same time, he insists that women who made similar charges against former president Bill Clinton must be heard.
![Republican presidential candidate sees a "Little Trump" on display.](/web/20161017150347im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/o/t/e/5/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs3otx.png/1476707579422.jpg)
Trump figures he can win by focusing on similar allegations against Bill Clinton, and Hillary's role in countering them.
Clinton goes on stage as a woman whose historic bid to be the first female president inspires little voter excitement. Yet, she's now picking up massive support from women as the campaign hinges on male entitlement - even though her jarring personal history as a feminist icon who stood by her philandering husband renders her strangely mute in the face of an outpouring of female anger over sexual harassment.
![Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.](/web/20161017150347im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/2/y/t/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs3otx.png/1476707579422.jpg)
In the last debate, Clinton opted not to engage in Trump's bid to make it all about Bill - this week he's likely to double down.
At this stage in the campaign, Trump is predictably unpredictable. There's sure to be a stunt - in the minutes before the last debate, he paraded three of Bill Clinton's accusers and placed them in the audience. Now he's accusing Hillary Clinton of being on drugs when they faced off in St Louis.
![Donald Trump is seen through a teleprompter as he speaks during a campaign event in Cincinnati, Ohio.](/web/20161017150347im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/3/9/p/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs3otx.png/1476707579422.jpg)
A poll by The Washington Post, the first detailed assessment of likely voter reaction to the assault accusations against Trump and his response, indicates his credibility is shot.
Among its findings:
![Hillary Clinton gets a selfie with supporters in Seattle on Friday.](/web/20161017150347im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/3/3/h/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs3otx.png/1476707579422.jpg)
- 68 per cent believe Trump made unwanted sexual advances towards women; just 14 per cent say he has not.
- 57 per cent judge his response to be insincere; 40 per cent believe him.
- 52 per cent reject his claim that the "grab them by the pussy" video was nothing more that "locker room banter". The same 40 per cent believe him.
- 62 per cent say Hillary Clinton's criticisms of women who accused her husband of sexual abuse is not a legitimate issue; only 35 per cent say it is.
- 67 per cent say Bill Clinton's treatment of women is not a legitimate issue; just 31 per cent say it is.
- 57 per cent say it's inappropriate for Trump to say that, as president, he would jail Hillary Clinton; remarkably, 41 per cent say it's appropriate.
In the past week, Clinton has pulled ahead in polls, at one stage by more than six points in the Real Clear Politics average of national polls. But The Washington Post poll will cause anxiety in her camp - despite 10 days of resounding condemnation of Trump, Clinton leads Trump nationally by just four points - 47-43.
![All a plot against him: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.](/web/20161017150347im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/3/9/y/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs3otx.png/1476707579422.jpg)
Her lead is the same as the poll's margin of error. Since the last Post poll on September 22, Clinton has not made the break she needs - she's up by just a single point.
On questions of honesty and trust, Clinton is still viewed as unfavourably as Trump - she's on 60 points; he's just a hair's breadth worse, on 62 points. Clinton's net "unfavourable" rating is just under half that for Trump - she's minus 14; he's minus 25.
![How did Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump get so far before his ethics started to be seriously questioned?](/web/20161017150347im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/3/o/i/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs3otx.png/1476707579422.jpg)
They might stop having the vapors on reading the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, in which she leads Trump by 11 points – 48-37. The poll also confirms a feature of support for Trump in the broader electorate – since early in the northern summer it's been bumping against an election-loosing ceiling in the 34 to 38 point range.
This election will have record turnout, because voters see through Trump’s shameful attempts to undermine it just weeks before it happens. pic.twitter.com/MbLgDnvxGU
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 15, 2016
Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke's "pitchforks and torches" tweet on Saturday, replete with a picture of a snarling crowd brandishing forks and flaming torches, chimes with calls by rank and file Trump supporters for a coup - and coincides with renewed race-tinged efforts by the Trump campaign to frame the election as rigged.
It's incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ, and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time pic.twitter.com/8G5G0daGVN
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 15, 2016
Citing predominantly black cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago, Giuliani, Gingrich and Pence perpetuated unfounded claims of rampant voter fraud, with Giuliani declaring: "To tell me that I think the election in Philadelphia and Chicago is going to be fair, I would have to be a moron to say that - I would have to dislearn everything I learned in 40 years of being a politician."
A conspiracy theory about Philadelphia is rooted in the failure by 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney to win a single vote in 59 of the city's 1687 voting precincts.
Investigations by Philadelphia's Republican Party and by the city's Inquirer newspaper found no evidence of fraud claims or wrongdoing. And a 2014 study by Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School, found only 31 possible cases of fraud among more than 1 billion votes cast in elections across the US over a 14-year period.
The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
Gingrich's main focus was on the media. Referring to voting for Trump in the Republican primaries, he argued: "Fourteen million people picked Donald Trump; 20 TV executives decided to destroy him. Without the unending, one-sided assault of the news media, Trump would be beating Hillary Clinton by 15 points."
And the Trump tweets just kept on coming: "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD."