US election: Donald Trump says he needs to be '˜nice and cool'

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he wants to 'stay cool'

He opened his rally in Pensacola, Florida, on Wednesday night by predicting victory and then mimicked his aides by saying he needs to “be nice and cool”.

“Stay on point, Donald, Stay on point,” he teasingly quoted his staff as saying. “No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Nice and easy.”

Trump has not taken the bait in recent days as Democrats have tried to once again put this treatment of women at the centre of his campaign. He has not addressed the matter, instead focusing on criticisms of The Affordable Care Act and the investigation into Clinton’s private email server.

Clinton cheers Cubs to victory

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was finally getting a chance to cheer her hometown Chicago Cubs’ victory in the World Series.

With the game going to extra innings, Clinton was able to catch the final moments after finishing a rally in Arizona Wednesday on night. She watched on an aide’s iPad as she stood by her idling motorcade.

Reporters in vans further back in the motorcade could hear cheers from the direction of Clinton’s vehicle after the final out in the Cubs’ 8-7 victory in the seventh game. An aide said Clinton staffer and Cubs fan Connolly Keigher pulled one of the Cubs’ signature “W” flags from her purse. She and Clinton then held it up in celebration.

Clinton grew up in the suburbs of Chicago.

Trump and Clinton are on the campaign trail as new polls show that the race for the White House has become very tight.

Clinton in Arizona

Clinton has been visiting Arizona - her first stop of the general election in a state her campaign is hoping to pluck from Donald Trump.

She was greeted by a boisterous crowd of 15,000 - one of her largest of the campaign - on the campus of Arizona State University.

Clinton said the students in the crowd were “proof that the American dream is alive and big enough for everyone”.

And she backed Democrat Paul Penzone in the race for Maricopa County sheriff, a post held by immigration hardliner Joe Arpaio. She told the cheering crowd: “I think it’s time you had a new sheriff in town, don’t you?”

Senate leader backs Trump

Back with Donald Trump and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has made his strongest statement yet in favour of his party’s presidential nominee, telling supporters in his home state that “we need a new president, Donald Trump, to be the most powerful Republican in America”.

McConnell, who has warned repeatedly that Republicans could lose control of the Senate this year, has been silent on Trump in recent weeks as he has come under fire for his statements about women and his claims that the election is rigged against him.

McConnell even told a group of business leaders during a recent speech that if they wanted to hear him discuss Trump, they “might as well go ahead and leave”.

In Kentucky on Wednesday night, McConnell said: “if America votes like Kentucky, we’ll be fine.”