Hillary Clinton won all three debates—by double digits | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Welcome to McClatchy’s Voter Survival Guide, an interactive presentation of daily events from one of the strangest presidential campaigns in modern history.

Unlike Barack Obama in 2012, Hillary Clinton is the clear winner of all three presidential debates.

Donald Trump managed to shrink her margin of victory with each successive debate, but Clinton still won on Wednesday evening by double digits, according to polls conducted by CNN and CBS.

Trump claimed victory on Twitter, as per usual, but he didn’t even win some of the unscientfic polls he claimed to have won.

MSNBC’s Mark Halperin isn’t helping with the perception of the media as out-of-touch elites.

Trump said he’ll accept the results on November 8—if he wins. And a top Trump official leaves the campaign.

Barack Obama blasted Marco Rubio for his association with Trump on the campaign trail and vehemently defended Obamacare while campaigning in Florida.

Voters in Virginia now have until 11:59pm tonight to register after the state website experienced problems due to heavy traffic. Register here.

The polls open nationally in 17 days. Let’s get started.

Clinton wins all three debates

Every scientific poll released in the wake of the debates gave Clinton the edge and Wednesday was no exception.

Clinton won a CNN poll by a 52 to 39 percent margin, a tighter margin than the first two debates but still a clear win.

Trump, who refused to say that he would accept the results of the election, touted his debate “win” on Twitter.

But at least one of the unscientific snap polls Trump referenced, the Fox 6 Wisconsin poll, actually has a 68-31 advantage for Clinton.

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said he “would not be surprised” if Trump refused to concede the race, but insisted he was not worried about the prospect of violence.

“Donald Trump doesn't get to declare a winner,” Mook told reporters. “What's going to make it legitimate is the vote total.”

Clinton also won a CBS poll 49 percent to 39 percent, although more Democrats than Republicans tuned in to watch the debate. The poll had a sample size of 394 respondents spread across battleground states and a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

Trump will accept the results of the election—if he wins

At a rally in Delaware, Ohio Trump continued to make headlines billing his discussion of honoring election results as a “major announcement.”

“I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if I win,” Trump said.

He then qualified the statement, but it will do little to quell speculation that Trump may challenge the results of the election.

“Of course, I will accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result,” Trump said.

Thursday brought more news for the Trump campaign, as national political director Jim Murphy decided to “step back” from the campaign.

“I have not resigned but for personal reasons have had to take a step back from the campaign,” Murphy said in a statement to Politico.

Obama hits back at Trump

Barack Obama spent Thursday wooing African-American voters in South Florida, a key voting bloc for Democrats to take the battleground state.

“That is not a joking matter,” Obama said of Trump’s statements on respecting the results of the election. “I want everybody to pay attention here — that is dangerous. Because when you try to sow seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy. Then, you are doing the work of our adversaries for them.”

“Even in the middle of a crisis, she is calm and cool and collected,” Obama said. “And here is the thing about Hillary: No matter how tough the odds, no matter how much people try to knock her down, no matter how mean folks can be, she doesn’t point fingers. She doesn’t complain. She doesn’t whine. She just works harder. And she gets the job done, and she never, ever, ever quits.”

Links of Note

Whether Trump would concede an election loss doesn’t matter legally (McClatchy)

WikiLeaks emails part curtain on a nearly elected Obama considering White House staff (McClatchy)

GOP senators reject Trump’s ‘rigged’ election rhetoric, but it still may hurt them (McClatchy)

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