Hillary on meth: Trump adviser

The last thing Donald Trump's campaign needs is another incoherent conspiracy theory. The candidate has delivered one anyway.

Earlier this week, Trump confidant Roger Stone said in a radio interview that during the second debate, Hillary Clinton was "jacked up on something, I assume some kind of methamphetamine."

"I don't think she has the stamina for a campaign," said the former adviser to Richard Nixon and frequent Bloomberg Politics interviewee. "They managed to prop her up for one debate [but] she can't even keep her full schedule because her health is so bad."

Mr Trump picked up on this theme at a campaign rally in New Hampshire overnight NZT, saying Mrs Clinton — whom by outward appearances seemed poised and measured, or the exact opposite of someone on meth — was "pumped up" on something during the second debate (Mr Trump, by contrast, roamed the stage like an angry bear and was, again, afflicted by a mysterious sniff).

"Athletes, they make them take a drug test," he told the New Hampshire crowd.

"We should take a drug test prior to the debate because I don't know what's going on with her. But at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning. And at the end … she could barely reach her car."

The candidate went on to talk about an "epidemic" of drugs afflicting the US, saying record amounts of narcotics were coming across the border from Mexico.

The Republican nominee's latest outburst will distract from the groping allegations and his feud with his party's leadership in Congress.

But it also does his opponent the service of overshadowing Wikileaks' latest email dump where, once again, there are no bombshells but there are messages that could be construed as overly cozy in tone about Wall Street.

The latest RealClear Politics poll-of-polls has Mr Trump an average 6.7% behind Mrs Clinton.

As things stand, the Democrat will win by a landslide by dint of being ahead in 10 of the 12 battleground states that decide the election.

The third and final debate is on Thursday NZT.

Early voting has already begun in many states. By one estimate, one in three Americans will cast a vote before election day on November 8.