Donald Trump refused to say he would accept the results of the 2016 presidential election at the third and final debate Wednesday night. He had virtually no chance to become president even before that chilling statement, but he may have cost the GOP the House and the Senate with his dog-whistling hint at challenging election results, with no reason, should he lose. Even his most ardent defenders in the political media couldn’t defend him in the post-debate scrum I watched on television. His minions may find a way to rally on Thursday, but they will never be convincing.

With his support in national and swing-state polls cratering, with down-ballot Republicans fleeing his campaign, Trump drove a huge garbage truck up to the debate and tried to dump it on front-runner Hillary Clinton. Out tumbled President Obama’s half-brother Malik, the long-ago fiancée of Libya Ambassador Chris Stevens, the stepmother of another Benghazi-attack victim, and a former GOP vice presidential nominee named Sarah Palin. No, this isn’t a nightmare I had after over-eating. It really happened Wednesday night.

But none of it mattered. Trump destroyed his already faint chance at the presidency in every imaginable way. He did his best imitation of Alec Baldwin doing a Trump imitation, barking “Wrong!” at Clinton over and over. At a dramatic point when Clinton was rejecting moderator Chris Wallace’s suggestion that we need a “grand bargain” on Medicare and Social Security—with an argument progressives needed to hear in its entirety—he muttered, “She’s such a nasty woman.” It’s worth noting that neither major-party candidate endorsed Social Security cuts when asked to Wednesday night. May the Grand Bargainers please find another line of lobbying work.

-snip-

Chris Wallace and Hillary Clinton did their best to make this a debate about issues, but Trump was Trump, sniffing and huffing and grimacing and barking “no” and refusing to share his plans for governing on the off chance he should be elected. He took his birther crusade that tried to delegitimize President Obama (and failed) to the next step, by declaring that a Hillary Clinton victory will be illegitimate, too. Watching cable news after the debate, there was pretty unanimous revulsion at Trump’s claim. Let’s hope that endures when he loses.