As the US presidential candidates from the Republican and Democrat parties fight to win over swing voters before the election on November 8, the campaign for the Republican candidate Donald Trump faced a severe blow when the Washington Post published a 2005 recording of him making lewd remarks about women, along with testimonies of women who claim that he had harassed them in recent years. Those leaks were a massive talking point during the debate between Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, on October 10 at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.
The continuing string of scandals related to Donald Trump has exerted mounting pressure on his campaign. He has found difficulty in the search for a response that can get him back in the race, but he has confirmed that he will continue fighting despite having lost the support of some of the most prominent members of the Republican elite, losing ground to the Democratic candidate, and facing calls from some of the members of his party leadership to withdraw from the electoral race.
Not the first time
The string of scandals that hit the GOP candidate was not the first of their kind in a presidential election. Democratic President Grover Cleveland’s campaign was hit by controversy during his election campaign in 1884, after reports that he had a relationship with a widow and she conceived an illegitimate child. He continued to pay for the child’s care at an orphanage after the woman became unable to raise him. However, Cleveland admitted his actions and went on to win two terms, serving from 1885-1889 and 1893-1897.
During the 1992 elections between the Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George Bush Snr., who was campaigning for a second term in office, Clinton’s campaign was hit by accusations that he had a relationship with a former model, Gennifer Flowers, a civil servant in the state of Arkansas, and a former model and actress. She claimed that she was in a relationship with Clinton for 12 years. That did not prevent him from winning the elections for two terms.
As the Trump campaign struggles to get over the most recent scandals, his supporters have used Bill Clinton’s relationship with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky in 1996, during his presidency, to attack his wife, Hillary Clinton.
Conservatives continue supporting Trump
Trump admitted that the first leak was genuine and issued a video apology for the first time, hours after the recording was released. Throughout previous scandals, he had either tried to justify his actions, attack his critics, or repudiate the evidence against him by claiming it was fake. Despite Trump’s apologies, the negative impact on his campaign has had a lasting effect. The recording was released just weeks before the general elections, and its content was, offensive to many Americans, violating American social and political values and denigrating American women. His comments in the recording were not acceptable from a candidate who represents the country’s conservative camp. Moreover, the recording was seen as damaging to America’s image abroad.
However, the scandal did not severely damage Donald Trump’s support among American conservatives. Despite doubts among evangelical Christians, who described his comments as obscene and outrageous, they have continued to support him on the grounds that people of faith vote on common specific issues, such as his anti-abortion stance, protecting freedom of religion, nurturing the economy and opposing the nuclear deal with Iran.
They have evoked the principle of forgiveness, saying that true Christians embrace those who have sinned and repented of their wrongdoing. A number of prominent conservative Christians from the Anglican Consultative Council have used this argument, as has televangelist Mark Burns, Ralph Eugene Reed Jr., founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Robert James Jeffress of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and lobbyist Corey Lewandowski, who said: “We're appointing a leader, we are electing a leader to the free world. We're not electing a Sunday school teacher.”
Divisions in the Republican Party
The scandals that hit Donald Trump have divided the Republican Party in a manner that was never before experienced in US party politics. On the one hand, the Republican National Committee, representing the leadership of the party and its financial arm, continues to support Trump as a candidate as well as the governors of states such as Indiana and New Jersey. On the other hand, a number of Republican leaders have withdrawn their support – most notably Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan, currently, the most influential Republican in the United States, who canceled a meeting with Trump at the Republican Primary in Wisconsin.
Several other prominent Republicans in Congress have withdrawn their support for Trump, including Jason E. Chaffetz, chairman of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and John McCain, the party’s candidate for the 2008 presidential poll, who said: “Donald Trump's behaviour...(makes) it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy”.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice added her name to the list of GOP leaders who have rejected Trump, saying on Facebook: “Enough! Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw.” Over 150 prominent Republicans have withdrawn their support for Trump, including the senators for the states of South Dakota, Idaho, Iowa, Alaska, West Virginia and Ohio, as well as former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina and California’s Governor and Hollywood star, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Other Republicans have criticized Trump over the recording, including Senator Kelly Ayotte, Senator majority leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican National Committee’s President Reince Priebus, who was formerly known for his staunch support for Trump. He slammed Trump’s “vile” comments, saying in a statement that “No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever.”
In response to his plummeting popularity within his party, Trump said his situation was difficult due to the lack of “absolute support” from Ryan and others. But he added on Twitter: “It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to.”
Trump’s falling approval ratings
The scandals that have rocked Trump's election campaign have slashed his ratings, just weeks before voters head to the polling booths to elect a new president. Recent polls by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News reveal that Trump's support has fallen massively, widening the gap between the two candidates to 11 points for the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, far greater than the six-point lead Clinton held at the end of September.
Polls by the New York Times in cooperation with several other newspapers and media outlets, after each presidential debate, give Clinton an 84 per cent chance of winning the elections, while Trump has just a 16 per cent chance. In a further sign of how much damage the scandal has done to Trump’s campaign, influential American newspapers that usually support conservative causes have openly opposed the Republican candidate. They include the Arizona Republic, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Dallas Morning News, which have supported Clinton, along with USA Today.
America's Foreign Policy magazine has broken with its tradition of neutrality in the presidential elections to endorse Hillary Clinton. In an editorial, it slammed her rival, saying he was “the worst major-party candidate this republic has ever produced,” and that “the recent furor over his vile behavior with women illustrates the extraordinary nature of his unsuitability, as does his repudiation by so many members of his party — who have so many reasons to reflexively support their nominee.”
The New Hampshire Union Leader has endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who is also backed by the Detroit News - the first time in the paper’s 143-year history that it has not backed the Republican candidate in the Presidential race.
In conclusion, the scandal caused by the recording did not just affect Trump’s chances of winning on November 8 but also has consequences for other Republicans’ chances of being elected, meaning the Democrats stand a higher chance of winning not just the White House but also both houses of Congress. This has pushed the Republican leadership to expend vast energies to keep hold of their congressional seats in order not to allow Clinton and the Democratic Party a clear mandate. Their strategy amounts to a Republican admission that Clinton has already won the race for the White House.
