British novelist Sir Salman Rushdie has written a damning summary of Donald Trump’s alleged crimes, including “child rape”, in a bid to offer some much-needed perspective into the FBI’s latest investigation into emails possibly linked to Hillary Clinton.
In a Facebook post written on Sunday, Rushdie said that Trump was due to “go on trial in November accused of racketeering and again in December accused of child rape”.
After listing a variety of accusations levelled at the Republican presidential candidate, Rushdie concludes: “Oh, but let’s talk about some emails Hillary didn’t send from someone else’s compute, that weren’t a crime anyway, because that’s how to choose a president.
“Come on, America. Focus.”
Next week Americans will take to the polls to vote for their next president.
But as Clinton enters the last full week of the presidential race, she is on the defence once again over her use of a private email system.
There have been scores of polls during this presidential election race, with national polls usually sampling about 1,000 people or more.
But in the US, presidential elections are won and lost in swing states such as Florida and Ohio.
Although it is difficult to gauge just how big an impact the FBI’s announcement has had on the presidential race, that has not stopped the pollsters from trying.
A Washington Post and ABC poll found that more than 6 in 10 voters said the news that the FBI is investigating newly discovered emails that could be related to Hillary Clinton’s private server will make no difference in their vote.
Just over three in 10 people said the news made them less likely to support Clinton, but these were described as “Republicans or Republican-leaning independents”.
The poll shows a very tight race between the two nominees, with Clinton at 46% and Trump at 45%.
But other US outlets are reporting that earliest indications show the news is not stopping Democrats from getting to the polls.
About 7,000 more Democrats participated in early voting on Saturday in North Carolina than did on that day in 2012. Nevada early voting looks remarkably similar to 2012 numbers.
In CNN’s Poll of Polls, which averages results for the five most recently released national surveys, Clinton has a 47% to 42% advantage over Trump.
Most polls have Clinton ahead, but with a very slim majority.
Yet in Florida, one of the key swing states, a New York Times Upshot/Siena poll found Trump ahead with 46% compared to Clinton’s 42%. In September the same poll found that the two candidates were level a 43%.
Clinton, who is set to campaign Monday across Ohio, vowed over the weekend that she would not be “knocked off course” in the election’s final days by the discovery of new emails in an unrelated sexting investigation.
It is unclear what is contained in the emails or if any of them was sent or received by Clinton herself.
“I’m not stopping now, we’re just getting warmed up,” Clinton declared during a packed rally with gay and lesbian supporters in battleground Florida Sunday.
“We’re not going to be distracted, no matter what our opponents throw at us,” the Associated Press reports.
Trump, who had been trailing Clinton nationally and across key battleground states, campaigned with new vigor over the weekend as he seized on the news in an effort to boost his struggling candidacy.
“The polls have come out and they have been amazing, even before the big blow-up on Friday,” Trump told a crowd of thousands packed into an airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico - another traditionally Democratic state that Trump said on Sunday night be believes he can win.
FBI Director James Comey is facing a backlash from Clinton’s advisers and fellow Democrats who are furious over the vague letter he sent to Congress Friday.
Comey is facing pressure to release more details about the emails, including whether Comey had even reviewed them himself.
The emails were found on a computer that appears to belong to disgraced former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest advisers.
The controversy over Clinton’s email practices while she served as secretary of state has dogged her for more than a year.