It’s safe to say that Trump’s chances of winning the 2016 presidential election have been damaged by his habitual and degrading comments against women. Mostly female voters are affecting this, as their opinions are strongest on Trump being biased against women (The Washington Post). Trump is put between a rock and a hard place here, as women’s votes are an asset to winning, and they have made up “the majority of the vote in every presidential election since 1980” (The Washington Post). I would like to argue that Donald Trump’s most recent publicized comments, the 2005 self described “locker room banter” will push many undecided female voters over the edge to not vote for him.

In my opinion, Trump’s strong suits are masked by his weaknesses, such as lack of tactfulness and untrustworthiness, shown through his recent surfaced remarks. The media is clearly attached to covering the extra baggage that comes along with Trump aside from his political ideals, shown through them digging up information on his inappropriate ‘05 comments (no comment on the details of those). The media is using junkyard dog journalism throughout this scandal (and his other scandals), as they all want to “add an element” to the story that hasn’t been covered yet. This communication tactic brings voters to see different ideas and framed displays of rhetoric that they may not have seen or thought of before. This is a problem for Trump, not only because of his rocky standing with women, but because of the way his comments are being publicized. Another interesting perspective is from Hillary Clinton’s point of view, which is seen below.

The function of not only Trump’s words alone but the ways they are displayed and communicated in the media bring about a major problem. The implications? Again, a domino effect starting with likely losing vital female votes, and possibly resulting in losing the election. Yikes.

The Talk of the Town

By now, unless you are one living in a different universe, we’ve all heard about the leak from the the Washington Post pertaining to Trump and the lewd comments that were made about Women. I couldn’t scroll through my Facebook feed this past Friday without seeing something in regards to that video leak and the feelings and emotions that were brought about, especially from women, on this particular topic. You certainly have to wonder what must be going through Trumps head at this point in the game. We’re a month out from election day and something this extreme could have the potential to sway undecided voters in a direction Trumps personnel don’t want to see stray away. Many Republicans voiced their complaints about these comments, including former Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain who revoked his endorsement of Trump after hearing oft these comments.

Trump’s Response

While Trump did post an apology, a lot of people seemed to be taken back by the underwhelming sense of urgency and care that’s brought about in his apology. His use of the term “it’s just locker room” talk sparked an outrage on social media. But what’s more interesting and intriguing to me is how Trump rallied together a group of apparent women who claimed to have been raped or assaulted by Bill Clinton, Hilary’s husband and former President. While it’s hard to tell if anything will actually come of that rebuttal from Trump, I’d argue it was a a pretty strategic move on his part because it helps shed light on another issue that may not be brought to the forefront at all given the climate that the media is taking towards Trump at this stage in the race. Many people will argue that “oh well Bill isn’t the candidate who is running, so why are we pinning Hillary by association?” While I do see where voters come from with that, I think it’s important that we shed light on how much of a “team” Hilary and Bill have been all these years. Bill has had a large influence on Hilary and she has always “stood by his side” even through all the scandal. Dr. James Dobson, in my opinion, shares great perspective and insight on this particular situation and really helps back up the argument I’m trying to make here.

So what will come of this?

While I in no way condone Trump’s actions and words from the 2005 video (it’s actually very revolting and disgusting to hear from a potential commander in chief), I think it’s important that we examine how much of this issue is going to be strictly driven by the power and appeal to emotion, especially from a media standpoint. We’ve already seen how much the media has blown this topic up. Just look at the debate from last night! Within 5 minutes of the debate, Anderson pulls out the machine gun and fires right at Trump with the tape question and spends the next 25 minutes of the debate questioning him on that. Now don’t get me wrong again, I’m not condoning his actions at all, but it was astonishing to me how much time was spent on this topic in last nights debate. And the moderators certainly were not going to give up on it, especially when he kept trying to steer the question in another direction.

So, what do the voters think now?

A recent poll shows Clinton increasing her lead by 11 points. It’ll be interesting folks.

For the record, I’m just going to leave this article from someone I look up to, Jerry Falwell Jr. who’s the President of Liberty University. He makes a very interesting and what I saw as a thought out opinion towards this. Both Jerry and Dobson throw out some intriguing and what a lot would say, shocking insight on the current state of Trump.

Trump today made the comment that any disparaging comments he made towards women in the past were for the purpose of “entertainment”. He added that “There’s nobody that has more respect for women than I do” which in itself is ironic because he is the only thing standing in the way of the first female president of the United States. Trump’s problems with women have been widely circulated and this isn’t bound to help him in any way. If the attacks were limited to a certain instance, that would be easier to explain. But years of comments are following him and with as many as he is responsible for, it becomes increasingly difficult to explain how fat shaming a women at 3 am or his comments about Megan Kelly being affected by menstruation.

Women’s opinions of him dropped sharply after the first debate in which Trump came across as hostile. “Twenty-seven percent of likely women voters said the debate made them think worse of Trump. Meanwhile, nearly a third, or 30 percent, said their opinion of Clinton had improved…”. This all proves the original point that Trump saying all these things may have been entertainment for him but no one else seemed to enjoy his brand of entertainment. He constantly turns women voters away and this latest stunt is sure to anger the largest group in America even more.

This is a problem for him especially because he knows that suburban college educated women are a key demographic that he needs to do well with in order to stand a chance in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. He needs to realize how delicate of a position he is currently in. Go too harsh and he runs the risk of coming across as sexist, however his ego and lack of experience may point to the fact that he is very likely to try to make a drastic change anytime soon.

Sources

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-live-updates-trailguide-1475788177-htmlstory.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-after-debate-women-think-less-trump-better-clinton-n656321

The Big Question: Will women vote for their same gender nominee, or side with Trump?

Demographically, Trump has set a clear trend for gaining male votes, but needs to flip the audience to females to increase his chances of taking office. Why are fewer females that are siding for him? An obvious point to this stance is rooted in the media’s display of how he has treated women during his time as the republican nominee (and who knows, maybe before), or how he has at least publicly made comments that bring women down.

Interestingly enough, “Four years ago, Romney carried this demographic [white women with college degrees] over President Obama, 52 percent to 46 percent, according to exit polls.” (The Washington Post).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-has-a-challenge-with-white-women-you-just-want-to-smack-him/2016/10/01/df08f9ee-875b-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html

Trump just cannot seem to get these women’s attention, and understandably so. Note below what he had to say via Twitter three years ago and one year ago, and it’s interesting to note how the continuation of comments like this during his tenure have changed women’s political stance.

Trump must also feel the need to positively portray his viewpoint of women through things like his ad campaign featuring his daughter (a business woman) to explain his support for a workforce in which women are treated as that of men. “The ad campaign, called “Motherhood,” will air this week nationally and in swing states on women-focused cable channels” (The Washington Post).

The list goes on as to what Donald Trump has stated about women in his past, present, and likely in his future. In the long run, this has probably caused him to lose a chunk of women’s votes, which are vital votes for the current presidential election. Whether or not he wins some votes back is up to the people, but either way, the female vote for Trump is an interesting statistic to monitor as time goes on.