Donald Trump’s wife Melania has weighed into the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign for the first time since the October 7 release of recorded sexual comments damaged him in the polls.

She described Trump’s 2005 unguarded statements as “boy talk” and that he had been “egged on” to make them by television host Billy Bush.

For his part her husband has again been insisted the election will be fixed and that he might not accept the result, insisting people dead for 10 years and illegal immigrants were voting.

Is the pussy-grabbing the reason he's sensitive about people saying he has small hands? Have 8 billion ppl already t-balled this easy joke?— Doug Stanhope (@DougStanhope) October 14, 2016


It is unprecedented for a major US candidate to declare the result invalid before the election is held, and Trump’s claim of rampant voter fraud is unproven. Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton should be smiling, but there is a new claim against her; that the State department pressured the FBI to downgrade confidentiality on one of her leaked e-mails.

Trump claims U.S. is allowing illegal immigrants in “so they can go and vote” https://t.co/w8uUTVlaJX— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 7, 2016


It is yet another slippery inconsistency that appears to be reflected in the pubic opinion polls. Despite Hillary’s widening lead over Trump, take-off is elusive. The Democrats’ lead is more driven by antipathy towards the challenger than enthusiasm for the former Secretary of State.

There remain the House and Senate battles and much party attention appears to be swinging towards them; for some “anyone but Trump” Republicans taking resources from what they see as a lame-duck candidate’s campaign, and for some Democrats sensing an even greater prize than just the White House is possible as Trump drags down the congressional vote in his wake.