Katie Hopkins, columnist for The Daily Mail, won't be backing down on her support of Donald Trump after his display in last night's debate. 

The Republican candidate refused to state that he would recognise the results of the election if he lost, and once again restated his belief that the election is "rigged" against him. 

Speaking on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk, Hopkins detailed why she believes that Trump could be on course for a surprise win in the election, as the media is doing a particularly poor job of detailing and portraying the movement of supporters behind him.

"I thought it was a fantastic debate for Donald Trump," Hopkins told Pat Kenny. "I think he certainly is on course for a major upset in America, and I think we are doing a very bad job here in the UK and in Ireland. We are misrepresenting and underestimating the potential Donald has to win the White House, I think he still will win it."

Noting that Trump supporters are more likely to turn out than those backing Hillary Clinton, she added: "I think he's playing a very clever game with this idea that the voting booths, the polls are rigged. What that does of course is it incentivises people who cannot let that happen to turn out and vote."

"He's against the system, against the establishment, against the kind of mathematics of the thing. He's for common sense and he's for voters who want jobs to stay in America and make America great again. We are doing a bad job at helping people to understand the strength of support he has."

Trump's "locker room talk"

Trump has recently been in the headlines after a number of women came forward with allegations of sexual assault against the businessman, while comments he made in 2005 about groping women were recorded and leaked to The Washington Post. 

"For me, I don't have a problem with it. I have daughters [...] and I'm not concerned for my daughters either, actually. I hear much worse than that on a daily basis on my train journeys with my women friends and companions, I hear a great deal worse.

"It is the sort of talk that happens behind closed doors. I would also say that he didn't make these comments when he was a politician. It's not like Hillary Clinton, who supported and clung desperately to the leg of her sad husband whilst he was doing whatever with Monica Lewinsky inside the White House. It was back in 2005, it was a quiet chat between a man off-camera with someone else.

"I don't have a problem with it. It's a bit of boasting that he would never do now, and I think what we saw last night in the debate was him being very calm, talking about policy and actually looking quite presidential. Even his critics were saying he came out of that looking much more like a leader." 

Brexit

While still finding time to hit out at protesters ("all of them need a wash"), Boris Johnson ("a buffoon of a Foreign Secretary") and Nicola Sturgeon ("morally abhorrent"), Hopkins moved on to the topic of borders and immigration in the wake of the Brexit vote. 

"We need a Hard Brexit," claimed Hopkins, "we do not want to be laughed at as a nation, and these people have been laughing in our face."

Hopkins was challenged by Pat on her views around immigration and taking in those who were fleeing conflict, and he noted that members of other EU states were welcome to move freely and enter the Republic of Ireland, which would allow them to cross in to the UK. 

"I think that's where the Hard Brexit comes in. I don't think we have a migrant problem, I think we have an issue with British citizens being put to the back of the line. There are 8,600 children, British children, in need of foster care. There are 80,000 British children looked after by the state here every day, and yet, for some reason our Home Secretary Amber Rudd said it would be a good thing if we could bring 300 over from the Jungle [in Calais].

"How is that a good thing? For whom is that a good thing? I guarantee you, it's not the average mother, who's trying to get one of her top three choices of a place for primary schooling for her children, or is on the phone this morning trying to get a same-day doctor's appointment and is unable to do so.

"We are not the motherland for the global population's waste and strafe," Hopkins concluded.