Welcome to the Trump-Clinton conspiracy election

LOS ANGELES – It’s a conspiracy: The 2016 campaign features one candidate who warned against the “vast right-wing conspiracy” and another who was a leader of the so-called “birther” movement.

Donald Trump and his surrogates hint at a mysterious “illness” afflicting rival Hillary Clinton. She’s warning of murky ties between Trump and the Russian government, suggesting that her Republican opponent may be a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Rumours and innuendo which have been long confined to the far reaches of the Internet are dominating the presidential race.

Clinton plans to speak in Reno, Nevada, on Thursday in an address that will accuse Trump of supporting an “alt-right” campaign that presents “a divisive and dystopian view of America.”