Top Republicans now dump Trump

TROUBLED CAMPAIGN McCain says impossible to back him after demeaning comments and boasts about assaults

nent elected officials by one count, including some present and past governors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, serving senators and members of the House of Representatives, and former candidates for the White House Carly Fiorina, Jon Huntsman, Tim Pawlenty and George Pataki.

Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Mike Crapo of Idaho are calling on Trump to quit the campaign so Pence can lead the ticket.

Trump, who has said there is “zero chance I’ll quit,” slammed them in a tweet on Sunday, “So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers - and elections - go down!”

A lot of them are indeed seeking re-election — McCain, Kelly Ayotte, Rob Portman, for instance — and their decision to distance themselves could have been prompted by genuine outrage over his remarks or politically expediency.

They should worry about their poll number, but so should Trump.

At this time before the first debate, he was merely two points behind Clinton, having bridged a gap of around eight points.

On Sunday, he was trailing her by over four points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. And in FiveThirtyEight’s forecast, Trump had only18.4% chance of winning the presidency to Clinton’s 81.5%; compared to 41.8% to Clinton’s at 58.2% then.

Clinton, who dominated the first debate and won it fairly and squarely, is coming to the second with a small patch of cloud over head as well.

Hacked excerpts from her highly paid speeches to Wall Street banks and institutions, released on Friday by Wikileaks,