With so much stacked against him, can Donald Trump pull off a miracle and actually win this election?
Right at this moment, things are looking quite grim for the Trump campaign. Following the release of the lewd audio tape, six women have come forward and have accused him of doing the exact sorts of things that he admitted to on that tape, and the mainstream media is going after him with all they’ve got. Of course the Clintons have done far worse things than Trump has, and that is the case that Trump must make to the American people in the last 25 days of this election. But it certainly isn’t helping that Trump is receiving very little help from his own party. In fact, earlier today Politico published an article titled “RNC TV ad spending for Trump: $0,” which documented the fact that the Republican National Committee has not spent a single penny on television advertising for Trump so far in 2016.
If the Republican National Committee had treated past candidates similarly, this wouldn’t be an issue. But as Politico has pointed out, that definitely is not the case.
In 2004, the committee spent $18.2 million on independent expenditures — or IEs, in campaign parlance — boosting George W. Bush’s reelection bid. In 2008, the RNC’s IE spending surged to $53.5 million in support of John McCain’s campaign against Barack Obama. And in 2012, the RNC spent $42.4 million on IEs boosting Mitt Romney or opposing President Obama — with nearly 80 percent of the spending occurring before mid-October.
By contrast, this cycle the RNC has spent only $321,000 on independent expenditures attacking Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. And all of that spending occurred last fall — before Trump had emerged as the leader for the GOP presidential nomination.
This revelation comes at a time when the Trump campaign is in full-blown crisis mode.
Since the second debate, six different women have come forward with allegations that Trump either groped them or kissed them against their will. The following summary of these allegations comes from the Daily Mail:
Temple Taggert, who competed as Miss Utah in the 1997 Miss USA pageant claims that Trump kissed her on the lips against her will.
Cassandra Searles, who served as Miss Washington in the 2013 pageant, claims that Trump ‘grabbed her (expletive)’ and invited her back to his hotel room during the competition.
Natasha Stoynoff was interviewing Trump at Mar-a-Lago back in 2005 when she claims that Trump began ‘forcing his tongue down [her] throat.’
Mindy McGillivray claims she was also at Mar-a-Lago when she was groped by Trump.
Rachel Crooks claims Trump kissed her on the lips against her will in 2005, and Jessica Leeds alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her on a plane three decades ago.
Are these allegations true?
I don’t know. But it is certainly alarming that so many women have come forward and that their stories are so similar.
The one man that knows the truth about all of these claims is Donald Trump, and so far Trump is vehemently denying all of the accusations.
“The phony story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION. Written by same people as last discredited story on woman. WATCH!” Trump tweeted Thursday morning.
He then went on a rant during his afternoon rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, reading off a teleprompter as he claimed, “these were nothing more than false smears,” “these claims are all fabricated,” and “these events never, ever happened.”
Trump attacked the integrity of his female accusers, saying “You take a look at these people … and you’ll understand also.”
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign intends to highlight the crimes of the Clintons as much as they can as we approach Election Day. In particular, they plan to make a big issue out of the fact that Bill Clinton is a serial sexual predator.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign signaled Wednesday its strategy for combating allegations of sexual misconduct against the Republican nominee: fight fire with fire.
More specifically, the campaign reportedly said it would seek to paint former President Bill Clinton “as Bill Cosby,” the same day multiple women accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances toward them.
The Trump campaign is promising to unveil some new accusers of Bill Clinton that have never been revealed before, and the National Enquirer is reporting that the Clinton campaign is scared to death that some of Hillary’s sexual scandals may be exposed to the public as well.
At this point, most Americans are not really pleased with either candidate. Over these last several weeks, Trump will be trying to show how evil Clinton is, and Clinton will be trying to show how evil Trump is.
But Hillary Clinton has the full power of the mainstream media working for her, and so that is a massive advantage.
And the most recent polls in key battleground states have very good news for Clinton. The following comes from CNN:
A trio of state polls released this week show Hillary Clinton’s northern “blue wall” holding, as she carries commanding leads across a series of key states.
The polls — taken after the release of a 2005 recording of Donald Trump talking in a sexually aggressive manner about women — show Clinton leading in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Coupled with Democrats’ advantage in the Electoral College, the slate of polls suggests that only an extremely narrow path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency remains for Trump, who has staked his candidacy in part on flipping some traditionally Democratic states.
Right now Clinton is ahead of Trump by 7 points in Wisconsin, by 9 points in Pennsylvania and by 11 points in Michigan.
If Trump plans to pull off a miracle, he has a whole lot of work to do.
And it certainly was not encouraging to hear that Trump has decided to pull out of Virginia in order to devote resources to other states.
Traditionally Virginia has been a key swing state, and so many are taking that as a very bad sign.
If you look at the electoral map, it is very, very difficult to see a path to victory for the Trump campaign at this point. I know that is not what a lot of people want to hear, but it is the truth.
Trump could still prove me wrong by pulling off a historic miracle in November, but with each passing day that is looking less and less likely.
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