Team Trump Is Massively Amping Up Claims That The Election Is “Rigged”

The waning weeks of the US presidential election have been deeply, deeply unedifying. It seems to have become a heated debate over who has committed or abetted the most sex crimes rather than any actual debate about policy; and as Hillary Clinton‘s poll lead has pulled ahead, Donald Trump has entered full Roger Stone attack mode. 

Hillary Clinton has a significant lead, although there’s some question about the margin. For instance, one major national poll released on Sunday morning, from ABC News and the Washington Post, had Clinton ahead by 4 percentage points. Another, from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, had Clinton up 11 points instead. Our forecast model falls in the middle and shows Clinton with a 6- or 7-point lead. That translates to an 86 percent chance for her to win the election according to our polls-only model, and an 83 percent chance per our polls-plus model.

That being the case, Trump and his surrogates are ramping up the claims that the election is rigged. They can’t seem to decide what ‘rigged’ actually means – with their explanations oscillating between “the media is extremely biased” (probably true) to “a secret cabal of international bankers are rigging the election through subterfuge and guile” (hmm maybe less true).