As The New York Times labels Donald Trump “the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history” and endorses his opponent for President, the candidates go into the first debate in a virtual dead heat in the race for the White House.

The New York Times editorial board announced its support of Hillary Clinton in a piece published online on Saturday, saying its endorsement was “rooted in respect for her intellect, experience, toughness and courage”. 

Also over the weekend, the 165-year-old paper published several reports condemning Mr Trump’s morals and integrity, including his threat to invite Gennifer Flowers – the former mistress of Mrs Clinton’s husband Bill Clinton – to their Presidential Debate.

Meanwhile, the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll  has Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump in a “virtual dead heat” heading into their first debate set for Monday night local time in Long Island, New York.

Source: The New York Times

Clinton endorsed, Trump worst nominee

In endorsing Mrs Clinton, the newspaper said the Democratic candidate’s work as of the former secretary of state “has been defined more by incremental successes than by moments of transformational change”.

It said the cautious steps she took in the role “shows a determined leader intent on creating opportunity for struggling Americans at a time of economic upheaval and on ensuring that the United States remains a force for good in an often brutal world”.

The New York Times also lauded Mrs Clinton’s capacity for bipartisanship, noting the not insignificant obstacles placed in her path by the opposing party. 

Rather than comparing Mrs Clinton to Mr Trump, the paper’s editorial board made a single brief but cutting remark of the Republican candidate as the “worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history”.

We will explain in a subsequent editorial why we believe Mr. Trump to be the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history.
The New York Times editorial board

Some of that assessment will surely be due to Mr Trump’s social media threat to take Ms Flowers, who once had an affair with former president Bill Clinton, to his first debate with Mrs Clinton.

Trump threatens to bring Clinton mistress

Mr Trump made the threat after fellow businessman and Trump critic Mark Cuban said he would be in the front row for the debate.

“If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to Mr Cuban’s Apprentice-style reality show.

If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2016

Ms Flowers revealed an affair with Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign.

Mr Clinton initially denied the relationship, but later admitted he had a sexual relationship with Ms Flowers in the 1970s while under oath.

Ms Flowers responded on her own Twitter account this weekend saying: “Hi Donald. You know I’m in your corner and will definitely be at the debate!”

Hi Donald. You know I'm in your corner and will definitely be at the debate!…💋

— Gennifer Flowers (@gennflowers) September 24, 2016

A tight race

According to the Washington Post-ABC News poll, voting between the presidential candidates is split 46 per cent for Mrs Clinton and 44 per cent for Mr Trump, with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson at 5 per cent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 1 per cent.

Among registered voters, Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump are level at 41 per cent each.

In a two-way match-up between the two major nominees, Mrs Clinton is ahead on 49 per cent to Mr Trump’s 47 per cent among likely voters, but the pair are tied at 46 per cent among all registered voters. 

Some 80 per cent of voters said they plan to watch Monday’s first debate, with 44 per cent expecting Mrs Clinton to win and 34 per cent expecting Mr Trump to come out ahead.

Trump’s whoppers

As part of its critical scrutiny of Mr Trump, The New York Times has detailed a “blizzard of falsehoods, exaggerations and outright lies in the general election, peppering his speeches, interviews and Twitter posts with untruths so frequent that they can seem flighty or random – even compulsive”.

“Virtually all of Mr Trump’s falsehoods directly bolstered a powerful and self-aggrandising narrative depicting him as a heroic saviour for a nation menaced from every direction.”

The New York Times has monitored Mr Trump’s “whoppers”. Photo: Getty

The New York Times tracked Mr Trump’s public statements from September 15-21, and put together a list of his 31 “biggest whoppers”, many of them uttered repeatedly. See the list here.

The report said Mr Trump’s most consistent falsehood was that he opposed the war in Iraq from the start, “when the evidence shows otherwise”.