Donald Trump continues to isolate potential women voters as he makes excuses rather than simply apologizing. Not only are women across the nation upset with the recent release of Trump’s comments in 2005, but many are also upset with how he handled the situation during the debate.
Is that an apology?!
Before the second debate, Trump released an apology in which he stated, “It was wrong, I was wrong, and I apologize.” However, many people even political leaders believe that his “apology falls short.” People all over the country, especially women feel that Trump’s apology could be best characterized as defiant. The debate would have been the perfect chance for Trump to deliver a real heartfelt apology, but instead he continuously used the same excuse, “it’s locker room talk,” to justify his actions. As we have discussed in class, in order for him to win the election he has to aim his rhetoric towards the moderate female voter. By constantly justifying the words seen in this video as “locker room talk” he continues to distance himself from potential women voters.
What he really said during the debate
If you did watch the debate you probably don’t recall Trump even apologizing for his actions and this is probably because of how sporadic and unemotional his apology was. Trump responds to Cooper, “…this was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it…I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker room talk” (debate transcript/NewYorkTimes) . Instead of simply apologizing for his words, he continues to make excuses then goes on to the subject of ISIS. Not only did he not reply to an emotional question with an emotional answer, but his words also counteracted the previous apology given. All of this ultimately makes him appear insincere, which only helps to further push away any potential female voters.
Can this be reversed?
The real question is can Trump bounce back from this? There have been many instances through the campaign where Trump has said or done unpresidental things, yet maintained his voter base. Even if he maintains his loyal supporters, without the votes of women he has no chance to win this election. One poll released after the video highlights that 63% of voters believe that Trump has NO respect for women. Unless KellyAnne Conway has a few tricks left up her sleeves, it is very unlikely that Trump will get many female votes this November.
sources used:
http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/10/11/chris-christie-on-trumps-apology-nr.cnn
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html
www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/us/politics/transcript-second-debate.html?_r=0
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/poll-trump-video-respect-women-22953
www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/politics/donald-trump-apology.html?_r=0
I totally agree that Trump did not help his case at all.
Like you said, we’ve discussed in class that a highly emotional (and repetitive) issue like this needs to be addressed with an emotional, heartfelt response. Trump simply has not given that and has missed the window to do so. Because of his failure to meet the demands of the rhetorical situation, I agree that he is likely to lose, or has already lost, the female vote.
I also touched on this topic and think that Trump is going to have a hard time recovering from the surfacing of this tape. Trump’s seemingly half hearted apology magnifies the situation and definitely needed to be something more in order to draw in bring more of a positive closure to the situation. Just like I said and the other commenter said, he’s going to have a hard time recovering from this in terms of the female vote.