DONALD Trump’s sustained and vicious attack on Latinos could deliver a historic blow to his bid for the White House.
The Republican presidential candidate laid out his plans to deport 11million undocumented immigrants while labelling Mexicans killers, rapists and drug dealers and vowing to build a wall along the border.
But as the US goes to the polls today, early voting statistics from battleground states with large Latino populations show record turnouts among the largest minority group in the US.
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When Trump announced his candidacy for president in June last year, he began by comparing Mexican immigrants to “rapists” before broadening the scope of his insult to all Latinos.
He said: “But you have people coming in, and I’m not just saying Mexicans, I’m talking about people that are from all over, that are killers and rapists and they’re coming into this country.”
He then insisted the Mexican government were purposefully sending undocumented criminals over the border.
Polls have shown Latino voters support Hillary Clinton by unprecedented margins.
Political analysts argue that could sink Trump in a number of states essential to his path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
Latino turnout propelled Democrats in Clark County, home to Las Vegas and Nevada’s largest population, to a record-breaking close on Friday.
Early ballots cast gave the Democrat a 72,000-strong lead – enough, according to veteran Nevada political expert Jon Ralston, to essentially win the state for Clinton.
When president Barack Obama won there by seven points four years ago, Democrats led by 71,000 at the end of early voting.
Nevada’s Republican chairman Michael McDonald said the vote was being run unfairly.
At a Trump rally in Reno, he said: “In Clark County, they kept a poll open till 10pm so a certain group could vote.
“It wasn’t in an area that normally has high transition. The polls are supposed to close at 7pm. This was kept open till 10pm. Yeah, you feel free right now? Think this is a free or easy
election?”
Florida, home to thousands of Latinos, saw a 49.4 per cent turnout among its early voters, with Democrats leading by 88,000 ballots.
Nationwide polls showed Clinton with the advantage over Trump. According to CNN, she pulled ahead in the battlegrounds of New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, with a three-point and five-point edge respectively.
They remained tied in the key state of North Carolina.
Nationwide, Clinton held a three-point average lead. An NBC/Survey Monkey poll put her seven points ahead.
Of the 10 legitimate polls, Trump leads in only one. The Investor’s Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence survey gave him a two-point advantage.
The boost for Clinton came after the FBI found no evidence of criminality in a new batch of her emails.
In a letter to members of Congress on Sunday, FBI director James Comey said the bureau had finished their review and found nothing to change their previous position.
Four months ago, he said Clinton had been careless but not criminal in handling classified material on her private email server while secretary of state.
When the FBI reopened their investigation after finding 650,0000 emails on her aide Huma Abedin’s laptop a fortnight ago, she suffered a huge drop in her ratings, putting her neck-and-neck with Trump.
But the move by the FBI to clear Clinton infuriated Trump. He told a crowd of 8000 in Detroit, Michigan, he rejected the decision and she was being protected by “a rigged system”.
“The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time,” he said.
“The rank-and-file special agents in the FBI won’t let her get away with her terrible crimes – including the deletion of 33,000 emails after receiving a congressional subpoena.
“Right now she’s being protected by a rigged system.
“You can’t review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can’t do it, folks.
“Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI know it. The people know it.
“It is now up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8.
“Unbelievable. What she gets away with, folks. Unbelievable.”
Comey’s decision left many Republicans feeling it was enough to give Clinton the historic win.
GOP political strategist John Weaver said: “I believe she’s going to win in an electoral landslide and be the most unpopular president in electoral history, which is quite the paradox.”
The two candidates spent the last 24 hours before the ballot on the campaign trail
Clinton appeared in Michigan, a state dense with working-class voters, where earlier this year she lost the Democratic primary to Senator Bernie Sanders.
Obama also headed there, making a stop in Ann Arbor.
It came after he taunted Trump over reports Republican staff have forced the tycoon off Twitter because he kept shooting himself in the foot.
Speaking at a rally for Clinton in Kissimmee, Florida, Obama told the crowd: “In the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self-control, they said, ‘We’re just going to take away his Twitter.’
“Now, if somebody can’t handle a Twitter account, they can’t handle the nuclear codes.”
Last night, Obama and first lady Michelle joined Clinton and husband Bill in Philadelphia, where Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi performed at a final late-night rally.
Trump visited Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
In India yesterday, Prime Minister Theresa May called for a “calm and measured” vote.
She said: “I take a simple view about the way in which I like to see campaigns conducted.
“I like to see them conducted in a calm and measured way with proper consideration of the issues.
“As to the result of the election, it’s up to the American people and we’ll know that very soon.”
Ladbrokes last night cut Clinton’s odds to 2-9, with Trump’s sliding to 10-3.