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Trump did a good job of stopping his freefall, but it might not be enough for him to win election, ex-YSU political science professor says
YOUNGSTOWN
Republican nominee Donald Trump did a good job solidifying his support after “being in a freefall for the past week,” but it might not be enough for him to win the presidency, said Bill Binning, the retired chairman of Youngstown State University’s political science department.
Trump “fired up his base, but you’re not supposed to have to do that a month before the election,” Binning said.
Binning was reacting to Sunday’s debate at Washington University in St. Louis between Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The debate came after three days, starting Friday, of massive national attention for a 2005 video in which Trump made numerous lewd comments about women and that being famous allows him to grope women. The comments, reported Friday by The Washington Post, resulted in several national Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of the Cincinnati area, withdrawing their support for Trump.
“He stonewalled on the whole issue of the tape,” Binning said. “He got better in the last part of the debate. We saw the old Trump from the rallies and the primary to stay in the race. He did that well, but I don’t know if he moved the needle.”
As for Clinton, Binning said, “She had a much better presence on the stage. She’s playing a careful game as she has a lead. She’s prepared on the issues. She did what she needed to do to keep the lead. I don’t think [Trump] did very much to help him win the election, but this was a crisis mode.”
Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Mark Munroe, who called the first presidential debate a draw, said Sunday was different.
“Trump won. The 10-year-old hot-mic comments became just a footnote as debate topics turned to more urgent topics,” he said. “On taxes, health care, the war on ISIS, the economy, the Supreme Court and energy, Trump was the clear winner. Clinton was defensive as Trump scored point after point. He looked strong, confident and poised.”
But Mahoning County Democratic Chairman David Betras said it was Clinton who was “very, very poised; very presidential, and she’ll be the next president of the United States. She talked a lot more about policies rather than personalities. [Trump] was pacing around nervous and used gutter politics.”
Trump, who referred to Clinton as “the devil,” said if he’s elected, he would have his attorney general hire a special prosecutor to investigate 33,000 emails deleted from her private computer system when she was secretary of state.
“There has never been so many lies, so much deception,” he said. “So we’re going to get a special prosecutor, and we’re going to look into it, because you know what, people have been, their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done, and it’s a disgrace, and honestly, you ought to be ashamed.”
Betras said, “In Third World countries, they jail political opponents, not the United States, and that’s what he threatened. He says outlandish things.”
Though Portman says he will no longer vote for Trump, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, and his wife, LeeAnn, a Republican member of the Electoral College, are still backing the Republican nominee even though they found his comments on women offensive and inappropriate.
After the debate, LeeAnn Johnson said Trump “promised to remain focused on the real issues facing our country, while Hillary Clinton tried to distract from her 30 years of failure in government. Mr. Trump took a huge step forward [Sunday], while Hillary Clinton shirked responsibility and accountability for not just her words, but her actions.
Tracey Winbush, chairwoman of Mahoning County for Trump and a Republican member of the Electoral College, said Trump “did a fabulous job. Things are looking great for the future of the Donald J. Trump campaign.”
Politifact, a Pulitizer Prize-winning political fact-checking website run by the Tampa Bay Times, reviewed 20 statements during the debate: 14 from Trump and 6 from Clinton.
Trump received a “pants on fire,” meaning a “ridiculous falsehood” and its lowest rating, for saying he didn’t tweet “check out a sex tape” of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe when he did that on Sept. 30. Politico, a political website, also wrote that Trump wasn’t telling the truth when he made the claim Sunday.
Four other Trump statements during the debate were deemed false by Politifact, including that he was among the first to oppose the war in Iraq, that refugees aren’t vetted, that a neighbor of the San Bernardino shooter saw something suspicious and didn’t report it, and that Clinton started and pushed the President Barack Obama “birther movement.” Another three Trump statements were ruled to be mostly false, two were half-true, three were mostly true and only one was true.
Of the six Clinton statements checked by Politifact, three were deemed to be true, two were mostly true and one was half-true.
Other statements by Trump deemed wrong by Politico included his claims that ISIS is operating in 32 countries, the economic growth is the slowest since the Great Depression of 1929, and that U.S. taxes are the highest in the world, and that there is evidence Trump does business with Russia despite his assertion he doesn’t.
Politico also wrote that Trump was correct when he said Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership at one time the “gold standard” of trade deals.
Far fewer statements from Clinton were checked by Politico, which said she wasn’t correct when she said she was in favor of eliminating the preferential tax treatment of carried interest for years, and that Russia is hacking Democratic political groups to get Trump elected.