Thursday's Headlines: Trump refuses to say whether he’ll accept election results

For Trump, a strong start — then a killer mistake; Trump-driven divide will consume GOP long after the election; Winners and losers from the final debate; Fact-checking the third Clinton-Trump debate; Clinton's weakness was defending her positions; Ted Cruz was right: Trump was no match for Clinton at the debates; The Fix: A surprise glimpse at Trump's debate notes; The Fix: Has Donald Trump's campaign manager given up on him?; Trump: ‘I didn’t even apologize to my wife’ about video, allegations;   The morning's most important stories, selected by Post editors   Top Stories Trump refuses to say whether he'll accept election results A defiant Donald Trump amplified one of the most explosive charges of his candidacy: that he might blame a loss on a rigged process. "I will tell you at the time," Trump said after being asked whether he would accept the election results. "I will keep you in suspense." By Karen Tumulty and Philip Rucker  •  Read more » For Trump, a strong start — then a killer mistake When Donald Trump said he would "keep you in suspense" about whether he'd accept the result of the election, it was an unprecedented departure in the history of the country. It was also a major blunder. Yet he seemed not to care at all. By Dan Balz  •  Read more »   Trump-driven divide will consume GOP long after the election The axis of furious conservative activists and hard-right media that spawned Trump's nationalist and conspiratorial campaign is determined to complete its hostile takeover of the GOP, win or lose. By Robert Costa  •  Read more »   Winners and losers from the final debate Trump had his most consistent debate yet — but Clinton easily came out on top. And Chris Wallace? He was the best moderator of all the debates. By Chris Cillizza  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Fact-checking the third Clinton-Trump debate Hillary Clinton, for the most part, was more factually accurate than Donald Trump who, once again, demonstrated a thin grasp of facts. By Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee  •  Read more »   Clinton's weakness was defending her positions In her three encounters with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton showed discomfort in the face of scrutiny and struggled at times to provide clear answers. By John Wagner  •  Read more »   Ted Cruz was right: Trump was no match for Clinton at the debates The real estate mogul and reality-TV star long billed himself as the ideal messenger to prosecute a devastating case against Clinton. Instead, during nearly 300 minutes debating her in the past month, Trump repeatedly missed chances to communicate a clear case against her. By Sean Sullivan  •  Read more »   The Fix: A surprise glimpse at Trump's debate notes They're hard to make out, but a few phrases can give us a clue to the candidates' thinking. By Peter W. Stevenson  •  Read more »   The Fix: Has Donald Trump's campaign manager given up on him? In this case, a retweet is an endorsement. By Amber Phillips  •  Read more »   Trump: ‘I didn’t even apologize to my wife’ about video, allegations Nine women have accused Trump of assault and a video was released where he said lewd things about women. By Katie Zezima  •  Read more »   Opinions   Unable to control himself, Trump confirms everyone's worst fears By E.J. Dionne Jr.  •  Read more »   In the third debate, Donald Trump erupts By Dana Milbank  •  Read more »   Trump's breathtaking repudiation of American democracy By Editorial Board  •  Read more »   Trump won the final debate By Ed Rogers  •  Read more »   The last debate: Donald Trump doesn’t care about democracy By Alexandra Petri  •  Read more »   Sketches from the third and final presidential debate By Ann Telnaes  •  Read more » ADVERTISEMENT   More News   Philippine president: 'Goodbye' Washington, hello China In meetings Thursday that capped months of anti-U.S. rhetoric, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, signed 13 agreements, cementing plans for closer cooperation. By Emily Rauhala  •  Read more » As Egypt's economy withers, the specter of social unrest grows Food shortages are widespread and prices are soaring. More and more people are living in poverty. And there's a currency crisis, despite billions of dollars in aid and investment from Persian Gulf nations. By Sudarsan Raghavan and Heba Mahfouz  •  Read more » Your Neanderthal DNA might actually be doing you some good Prehistoric hanky-panky between archaic hominids and our ancestors may have helped us survive as modern humans. By Sarah Kaplan  •  Read more » The story behind Obama's half brother, whom Trump invited to the debate Malik Obama is the kind of man that Trump says he'd like to keep out: A Muslim from a country racked by unrest and targeted by terrorists who fashion themselves as Islamists. But he's a naturalized U.S. citizen and a Trump backer. By Max Bearak and Rael Ombuor  •  Read more » The Fix: Texas is closer than Pennsylvania. Arizona is closer than Florida. Donald Trump needs a miracle. By Philip Bump  •  Read more » The Fix: Ranking Hillary Clinton's 84 proposed campaign slogans Gotta kill time before the debate, amirite? By Philip Bump  •  Read more » Youths inoculated before 15 need only two doses of HPV vaccine, CDC says The agency previously recommended a three-shot regimen, and experts hope the change will lead to a higher rate of vaccination, which has lagged among both girls and boys. By Laurie McGinley  •  Read more » At college football's top level, diversity on the field but not the sidelines COLUMN | The firing of Darrell Hazell's at Purdue leaves just seven African American head coaches among 65 schools in Power Five conferences. By John Feinstein  •  Read more » Author Nicholas Sparks hits a tear-soaked milestone: 20 years of sentimental love stories To celebrate, he's written a divorce story --- a subject he now knows. After 25 years of marriage, last October the laureate of love divorced his wife Cathy, who had long served as his muse. By Karen Heller  •  Read more »         Share Today's Headlines:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. 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