Out of all the things the guy has said/proposed the outrage comes now?
I don't think that this is any more outrageous than half of the other sh*t he's said. Maybe it's a bit more overt than his usual schtick?
I think you're going to see a lot of feigned outrage from his fellow Republicans though and that all comes down to demographics. In order to win in crucial swing states, Trump HAS to improve his numbers with White Suburban Women, HAS TO. Not only is it a critical demographic for Trump in the presidential election, but it's a critical demographic for a lot of the Senate seats that are up for grabs. This tape and Trump's non-apology, are absolutely destroying his numbers with Suburban Women. I think that a lot of the Republican leadership and down ticket candidates are jumping ship now as a last ditch attempt to hang onto the senate and any down ticket races and avoid being dragged down by Trump, who barring a miracle, is dead in the water.
I don't think the debate helped him that much either. Pivoting to 'Bill Clinton has done worse' isn't a very effective tool to attract women voters. Tim Miller and Katie Packer, two Republican strategists tested attacks on Hillary Clinton on focus groups during the primaries. Most women don't see Bill Clinton's behavior as a negative for Hillary, they see it as a negative for Bill and went as far as to say that it was a huge negative on the candidate to even bring it up.
Today, initial indicators are that the issue might be particularly toxic with crucial female swing voters. Anti-Trump GOP strategists Tim Miller and Katie Packer told NBC that they conducted focus groups on the subject before the Republican primaries, and concluded that âvoters were completely turned off and disgusted by it.â
Perhaps more telling is that many Trump supporters are publicly saying that the GOP nominee should refrain from raising this subject.
âItâs totally the wrong direction to go,â said Trump backer and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who pushed for Mr. Clintonâs impeachment, on Thursday.