Trump Super Pac chair: Donald Trump needs 'a miracle' to win – as it happened

Preparations are under way for Trump’s appearance at his event in Colorado Springs, Colorado this afternoon. “Several hundred Trump supporters are already here, listening to pre-Trump speakers, including Kimberly Jajack, a Trump alternate delegate from Colorado,” according to a pool report:

Jajack spoke of a “downward spiral of destruction” in the event Clinton is elected.

“Our sovereign nation is being slowly but surely destroyed,” she said.

As for Trump and the accusations before him, “forgive him as a child of God.”

As she spoke about Clinton, several chants of “Lock her up!” broke out. One man shouted “Off with her head!”

We’ll have a live video stream for you as showtime approaches.

Pretty good.

Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence has paid a visit to the Republican campaign offices that were firebombed at the weekend in liberal-ish Orange County, North Carolina:

The phrase “Nazi Republicans, leave town or else” with a swastika was painted on an adjacent building. No one was injured in the attack. A GoFundMe campaign at the weekend raised $10,000 to rebuild the office and there were condemnations and calls for understanding and justice on all sides.

Well, not all sides:

Who’s looking forward to tomorrow night’s debate? *ducks*

But in earnest, the audience for the second debate was off about 20% from the first debate. Will more or fewer people tune in for the third debate after the shambles that was No.2? To whet viewers’ appetites, Trump has announced that he has invited Pat Smith, the mother of a State Department IT consultant who was killed in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack.

Smith gave a wrenching speech at the Republican convention in which she said, “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son.” Then a couple weeks later the guy who wrote the speech came out and said he would never vote for Trump and might vote for Clinton.

America’s First Freedom, the official journal of the National Rifle Association, has a new cover featuring Hillary Clinton’s face wrinkles advocating for gun safety legislation:

(h/t @lgamgam)

Vogue magazine has followed in the footsteps of USA Today in setting aside its practice of not endorsing presidential candidates. In 2016, Vogue’s with her:

It looks like Hillary Clinton has just been told that 20 years hence she will be polling within three points of the Republican presidential nominee in Texas. 1993 portrait by Annie Liebovitz. From the endorsement:

Vogue has no history of political endorsements. Editors in chief have made their opinions known from time to time, but the magazine has never spoken in an election with a single voice. Given the profound stakes of this one, and the history that stands to be made, we feel that should change.

There go a bunch of canceled subscriptions.

18 Oct 201613.39 EDT

Polls depict tight races in trio of swing states

Mona Chalabi

In three crucial states – Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio – the contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump remains extremely close, according to polling data released by CNN/ORC today.

Voters were asked between 10 and 15 October which presidential candidate they support (the polls were conducted after the release of a video which showed Trump bragging about sexual assault). In Nevada, 46% of likely voters said they planned to back Clinton while 44% said they would support Trump. In North Carolina voters were split 48-47 in favor of Clinton, while in Ohio Clinton attracted only 44% of likely voters compared with Trump’s 48%.

Additional polling in Nevada only adds confusion to the picture:

The poor favorability ratings of both presidential nominees this year is an old story, but comparing those ratings with other political figures’ is still a bracing exercise:

Read further here:

And for those who wonder whether 2016 might produce an election night-surprise on the model of “Dewey defeats Truman”:

Reactions: Obama tells Trump to “stop whining”

Obama is asked whether he’s concerned about a potential for violence on Election Day, given Trump’s call for supporters to surveil polling sites? And what does he make of Trump’s claim that the election is rigged?

Obama:

One of the great things about America’s democracy is we have a vigorous sometimes bitter political contest and when it’s done, historically, regardless of party...

[Trump’s charges of a rigged election are] unprecedented, it happens to be based on no facts. Every expert, ... regardless of ideology... will tell you that instances of significant voter fraud are not to be found. That keep in mind elections are run by state and local officials which means that there are places like Florida for example where you’ve got a Republican governor whose appointees will be running... that is both irresponsible, and by the way it doesn’t really show the leadership and toughness that you’d want out of a president. You start whining before the game’s even over? ... Then you don’t have what it takes to be in this job. Because there are a lot of times when things don’t go our way, or my way...

The larger point is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest that you could even rig America’s elections, in part because they’re so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved.. and so I’d invite Mr Trump to stop whining and try to make his case to get votes..

If Trump wins, Obama says, he’d expect Clinton to give a gracious concession speech and promise to work with him. If Trump wins, Obama says, he’ll welcome him to the White House and escort him over to the Capitol for a peaceful transfer of power.

That’s what Americans do. That’s why America’s already great. One way of weakening America and making it less great is if you start betraying those basic American traditions that have been bipartisan and helped to hold the democracy together now for the better part of two centuries.