If viewers of Sunday’s presidential debate hoped to hear heartfelt contrition from Republican Donald Trump for the vulgar, sexually predatory remarks he made in a 2005 recording, they were no doubt disappointed. Others who expected to hear both candidates explain actual plans to fix the serious problems facing our country also, no doubt, were disappointed.
A serious town hall-style debate designed to help Americans choose their next president instead came dangerously close to turning into a primetime version of the “Jerry Springer Show” on the Washington University stage.
Trump’s apparent tactic was to put Democrat Hillary Clinton on the defensive by hammering on her husband’s sexual escapades. He appeared just before the debate with four women who reiterated assertions they were sexually victimized decades ago by former President Bill Clinton. The apparent goal was to divert attention from the fact that GOP leaders are abandoning him in droves.
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Hillary Clinton evaded answers about the deletion of emails, while an FBI investigation was underway, from the private server she used as secretary of state. She evaded answers about her private speeches to elite financial firms in which she embraced free trade and open borders.
Trump evaded answers about his own, still-unreleased tax returns and his $916 million writeoff in 1995. He also took the bizarre tactic of disagreeing openly with his running mate, Mike Pence, about the need for a military response in Syria. Trump took it a step further by labeling as stupid a Pentagon strategy that has cut Islamic State ranks by 60 percent and forced the terrorist group into retreat on all fronts in Iraq and Syria.
Trump made clear he is not aiming for a campaign reset but instead will use misogyny as a theme to attack his opponent. As angry accusations flew between him and Clinton, Trump stated bizarrely, “We have a divided nation … because of people like her. Believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart …tremendous hatred.”
In response to the laundry list that Hillary Clinton gave of his insulting treatment of women, Latinos, Muslims, immigrants and disabled people, Trump’s response was to wave it off along with the scandal that erupted Friday regarding his 2005 remarks: “It’s just words, folks. Just words. … That was locker room talk.” He then, inexplicably, tried to transition from that to a critique of the Obama administration and the Islamic State.
More than two dozen GOP members of Congress, including 16 Republican senators, have now withdrawn support for Trump, and it’s not difficult to see why.
Whether Trump managed to win over undecided voters with his show Sunday night is anyone’s guess. This newspaper is unswayed in our belief that he is dangerously unfit to be the next president.
