E Minus 19: This is what happened in Vegas.

Donald Trump shocked the political world again, saying during the final presidential debate that he might not accept the results of the election if he loses. “I will look at it at the time,” Trump said responding to a question by Fox News moderator Chris Wallace.  “I’ll keep you in suspense.”

Trump has been claiming for the last two weeks that the election is rigged and that the press is conspiring with the Clinton campaign to stop him from winning. Clinton said, “He is denigrating — he is talking down our democracy. And I am appalled that someone who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that position.”

Trump’s statement, possibly unprecedented in presidential politics, put a torpedo in a debate performance in which much of the time he was holding his own and scoring points. He’s oddly strong on foreign policy and the Middle East, in part because he makes flat declarations that, true or not, sound great. Clinton tends to get bogged in policy, lacking Trump’s declarative clarity.

The debate had more substance than the previous two, running through the candidates’ contrary opinions on Supreme Court appointments, abortion, guns, immigration, Russia, and the economy.

But Clinton succeeded several times in getting under Trump’s skin. When Clinton said Russian hackers were trying to sway the election so Trump could be Vladimir Putin’s puppet, he blurted out, “No you’re the puppet!” He said, “She’s a nasty woman.”

Clinton had some carefully prepared traps, and Trump fell into them. Mixing two issues Clinton said, “We have undocumented immigrants in America who are paying more federal income tax than a billionaire. I find that just astonishing.”

When Trump demanded to know why Clinton hadn’t fixed the country’s problems in his 30 years of public life she said, “On the day when I was in the Situation Room, monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting “The Celebrity Apprentice.’”

Permawar: Islamic State leaders are leaving the city of Mosul in advance of the assault by Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by Americans on the ground and in the air, according to the US. The Iraqi army is moving from the South, the Kurds from the East, in an effort to retake Iraq’s second-largest city. Five thousand or more ISIS fighters are still in the city and a bitter fight is expected.

Jonathan Beale for the BBC reported from the road to Mosul that, “Mortar rounds were soon being fired from what seemed like every direction. The Abrams tank was called on again and again to hit a group of IS fighters in the distance.” He said, “There was rarely a moment when one of the five Humvees we were travelling in wasn’t firing its machine-gun at something in the distance.”

Police Beat: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called the fatal police shooting Tuesday of a 66-year-old black woman in her Bronx apartment “tragic and unacceptable.” He said, “It should never have happened. It’s as simple as that.”

The officer was stripped of his gun and badge.

Police had been called to the home of Deborah Danner, who had a long history of mental illness. They said she first confronted Sgt. Hugh Barry with a pair of scissors, then went after him with a baseball bat. Barry fired twice, but the police commissioner said the officer failed to follow procedures for dealing with a person in mental distress.

Red Planet: Scientists are waiting for a signal from the Schiaparelli lander, which set down on Mars yesterday, but hasn’t phoned home. The lander was sent up there by the European Space Agency, which has yet to have a successful Mars landing. The Schiaparelli had to reduce its speed from about 1,000 mph to near zero in six minutes. The agency says the parachutes deployed, but they don’t know what happened next.

Billy Goat: The Chicago Cubs blew out the LA Dodgers 10-2 last night to stay alive in the National League championships. The series is now 2-2 and game 5 is tonight.

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