Reason to cringe: Female voters react to Trump

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Reason to cringe: Female voters react to Trump

By JULIE PACE

 

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) — When Donald Trump challenged Hillary Clinton's stamina on the debate stage, Pennsylvania voter Patricia Bennett said she heard a "dog whistle" that smacked of unmistakable sexism.

 

"Why doesn't he just say that she needs more testosterone?" said Bennett, a 69-year-old independent from the Philadelphia suburbs who plans to vote for Clinton in November.

 

Across the country, Lisa Lowe, a Colorado Democrat who was lukewarm about Clinton before Monday's debate, said Trump behaved like a "negative bully." Kris Stotler, an undecided Virginia Republican, was disappointed by Trump's jarring criticism of a former beauty queen's weight, comments Clinton forcefully condemned during the faceoff.

 

"It's incredibly distasteful, and it doesn't stop," Stotler, 48, said of Trump. "Even if you thought that, why would you say that?"

 

Bennett, Lowe and Stotler were among two dozen female voters from battleground states who spoke with The Associated Press on Tuesday. Nearly all expressed concerns with Trump's critical and often demeaning comments about women, as well as his approach toward Clinton in the debate.

 

The concerns were shared, too, by some women who plan to vote for Trump in November, though his supporters were more forgiving in their assessments.

 

"I think you'll see a different comeback from him in the next debate," said Carole Staats, a 60-year-old Republican from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.

 

While Clinton has held a lead in preference polls among female voters throughout her general election contest with Trump, she aims to widen that margin as much as possible to offset her weakness with men. She also needs to urgently energize younger female voters, who have been more skeptical of the first woman nominated for the White House by a major U.S. political party.

 

After Monday's debate, Clinton's team believes it has all the ammunition it needs to rally women in the campaign's closing weeks.

 

That's due in part to strong execution by Clinton, who arrived at the debate armed with numerous past statements Trump has made about women. She was particularly assertive in calling him out for once labeling 1996 Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado "Miss Piggy" after she gained weight.

 

But Trump also did himself few favors. He interrupted Clinton repeatedly during the debate, at times leaning into his microphone to declare "wrong!" as she was talking. And he perplexingly stood by his criticism of Machado the morning after the debate, saying in an interview on Fox News Channel that Machado was one of the "worst we ever had" in the beauty contest he used to own.

 

"She gained a massive amount of weight," Trump said. "It was a real problem. We had a real problem."

 

Clinton's campaign quickly lined up Machado for a conference call with reporters. The Venezuelan-born Machado, now a U.S. citizen, said she hoped her story would "open eyes" about Trump in the election.

 

Debby Bower, a 41-year-old Democrat who lives in the Denver suburbs, said Trump's taunting of the former beauty queen was "painful to my soul."

 

"It hurts my heart when I hear the hateful, spiteful language that Mr. Trump uses," Bower said.

 

According to a recent Associated Press-GfK poll of registered voters, 64 percent of women have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, while 58 percent of men view the Republican nominee negatively. Women were also more likely than men to say they'd be afraid or angry if Trump is elected in November.

 

Among likely voters, Clinton leads Trump among women in overall support, 51 percent to 34 percent. That puts her behind the 55 percent of women President Barack Obama won in the 2012 election, according to exit polls — though Trump also trails the 44 percent of women Republican Mitt Romney carried in his losing effort that same year.

 

At times, Clinton has been reluctant to play up the historic nature of her candidacy or call out perceived sexism that can color how she is judged on the nation's biggest political stage. But her campaign aides showed no such reluctance in the hours after the debate, moving swiftly to cast Trump's aggressive posture toward Clinton in front of a massive television audience as no different from how women often find themselves treated by men.

 

"His constant interruption of her probably was reminiscent of the way a lot of women feel about bullies in their lives," said John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman. "I thought it was kind of unbecoming and he couldn't stop himself."

 

Victoria Widergren, a Republican from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, agreed. The 46-year-old builder and architect was planning to vote for Trump, but changed her mind after Monday's debate.

 

Widergren said she was particularly appalled to learn that the billionaire businessman hadn't paid contractors who worked for him. But as the 90-minute debate stretched on, she, too, grew frustrated with Trump's interruptions of Clinton, a view she said was shared by colleagues she'd spoken to after the debate.

 

"He just doesn't understand when to stop," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Thomas Beaumont and Lisa Lerer in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kathleen Hennessey in Tysons Corner, Virginia, and AP Polling Editor Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-28

[OMGImInPattaya]

Snowflakes these days...what are we to make of them; they instantly melt at the slightest exposure to real life. And isn't it sexist to ignore the issues and concerns of male voters...I thought Hillary was for gender equality and against sexism?

Edited September 28, 2016 by OMGImInPattaya

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Snowflakes these days...what are we to make of them; they instantly melt at the slightest exposure to real life. And isn't it sexist to ignore the issues and concerns of male voters...I thought Hillary was for gender equality and against sexism?

Men don't like HRC, so they will be ignored. Notice that when HRC is on stage, it always mainly women behind her. If she gets elected, expect men to have little influence in her government.

As for the article, it is exactly what I expected when I clicked on the thread. Just more yack yack yack BS from the anti Trump media.

 

[LomSak27]

Too bad those snowflakes will likely decide the election. Trump did nothing to challenge Hilary's lead ... Time is closing in

 

[iReason]

Just now, OMGImInPattaya said:

Snowflakes these days...what are we to make of them; they instantly melt at the slightest exposure to real life. And isn't it sexist to ignore the issues and concerns of male voters...I thought Hillary was for gender equality and against sexism?

 

CLASSIC childlike marginalizing ignorance from a Deplorable expecting rational people to be "exposed" (accept) to their warped version of "real life".

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by iReason

[johnmcc6]

Clinton supporters should rush out and buy a large stock tissue now . When Trump rockets in there will millions of crying liberals causing a rush on stocks..

[chumpy]

14 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Men don't like HRC, so they will be ignored. Notice that when HRC is on stage, it always mainly  women behind her. If she gets elected, expect men to have little influence in her government. As for the article, it is exactly what I expected when I clicked on the thread. Just more yack yack yack BS from the anti Trump media.

 

A sore loser deplorable.

[siamike]

1 hour ago, johnmcc6 said:

Clinton supporters should rush out and buy a large stock tissue now . When Trump rockets in there will millions of crying liberals causing a rush on stocks..

 

When someone blames their poor performance on a bad microphone that was clearly functioning perfectly, that person knows he lost, and is desperately attempting to shift the blame for the loss onto something other than himself.  Trump knew he lost the debate as soon as it was over,...this week's post-debate polling will let us know how many voters agree with him and decide to vote for HRC.

[DM07]

5 hours ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Snowflakes these days...what are we to make of them; they instantly melt at the slightest exposure to real life. And isn't it sexist to ignore the issues and concerns of male voters...I thought Hillary was for gender equality and against sexism?

Snowflakes...you mean like the guys, crying for fair debate moderators (eg the ones, not calling him out on his lies and outright BS?

2 hours ago, johnmcc6 said:

Clinton supporters should rush out and buy a large stock tissue now . When Trump rockets in there will millions of crying liberals causing a rush on stocks..

Anytime now!

I am waiting!

Just bring it on!

[Chicog]

Quote

"I think you'll see a different comeback from him in the next debate," said Carole Staats

 

 

Knowing Trump it will be at the philosophical level of "you can't vote for her, her husband cheated on her and she's got tits".

 

 

[DrTuner]

The female voting thing was a bad idea. Luckily muslims will correct that soon.

[elgordo38]

3 hours ago, johnmcc6 said:

Clinton supporters should rush out and buy a large stock tissue now . When Trump rockets in there will millions of crying liberals causing a rush on stocks..

As a believer in gold it warms the cuckolds of my heart. I wonder what the weight of an ex beauty queen has to do with the issues? I feel that Trump is like a trip to the circus. The barker to be exact standing  outside the tent with a bull horn promising all the wonders of the world inside for .25 cents. Once inside you realize the show was not worth a plugged nickel. 

Edited September 28, 2016 by elgordo38

[Jingthing]

Con man on steroids or whatever "people say" he was hopped up on that caused those infamous SNIFFLES ... 

The man is clearly very ill, "people say" that, he lacks the stamina (and looks) to last a mere 90 minute debate without becoming totally unhinged. But insiders "people say" "trust me" that his attention span is basically non-existent  (could be living on fast food caused brain damage)  ... so grading on a curve, I guess you could say that pathetic narcissistic sleazeball did pretty well. 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Jingthing

[Silurian]

8 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Con man on steroids or whatever "people say" he was hopped up on that caused those infamous SNIFFLES ... 

The man is clearly very ill, "people say" that, he lacks the stamina (and looks) to last a mere 90 minute debate without becoming totally unhinged. But insiders "people say" "trust me" that he his attention span is basically non-existent ... so grading on a curve, I guess you could say that pathetic narcissistic sleazeball did pretty good. 

 

Yeah, at the end of 90 minutes, Trump seemed tired and was looking forward to being somewhere else. He could barely piece together whole sentences and keep a train of thought. Now, Hillary on the other hand was vibrant and looking like she wanted to go another 90 minutes.

 

After it was over, Trump almost forgot to shake Holt's hand on attempt to leave the stage in a rush. While afterwards, Hillary stuck around and enjoyed shaking hands with the audience. It was very telling on who had more energy and was enjoying themselves. 

[Tug]

Yup she kicked his ass!the rich racist bulley got trumped by a woman!

[dunroaming]

Good to see that both sides are still pitching for their candidate.  In a way it is encouraging to see it as a close call because that fires up both sides so much more.

 

One danger with the first debate is that the candidates were lobbing in grenades and not holding back at all.  I just hope they have enough ammo for the second and third debate.  The dreaded emails and non disclosure of tax returns got used early on but can we expect something new in round two?

[Linzz]

Personally I found that the moderator did not ask any hard questions of Hillary, it was all about scrutinizing Trump. For instance the hammering Trump got about backing the Iraq war or not, backwards and forwards, yes or no, did he or didn't he, for about 10 minutes. Yet there was NO questioning Hillary over the same issue who DID back the war and has since said "I made a mistake". (oopps sorry about all those deaths). Whatever Trump believed  back in 2004, he was in no way responsible which pales in comparison  to the fact that Hillary was responsible by backing the war and was not held up to any scrutiny  at all for that disaster nor held to any account.  

[Jingthing]

V.P. debate coming up October 3.