Analysis: Donald Trump didn’t win anyone over with performance in second debate

Sunday night in St. Louis, Donald Trump proved yet again he’s not interested in winning over any voters outside of his loyalists.

After reiterating a tepid apology for his disgusting hot-mic remarks in a 2005 video, he tried to divert attention from it by discussing former President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs and pledging to have a special prosecutor investigate Hillary Clinton over her email scandal if he were elected president.

Classic Trump, the same as when he challenged moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN over the debate rules, saying he was in a “one-on-three” situation against Cooper, Clinton and moderator Martha Raddatz from ABC News.

System’s rigged, check. The Clintons are crooks, check. Trump is an alpha dog and a give-no-quarters strongman, check.

The post-”Access Hollywood” Trump was the same as the one before the recording was released, the only difference being that Trump was better prepared for tonight’s debate and didn’t let Clinton get under his skin like she did during the first debate.

Instead, he interrupted Clinton on numerous occasions and followed her on the stage — some observers called it “stalking.”

Meanwhile, he made some remarkable statements, including that he hadn’t spoken to his running mate, Mike Pence, about U.S. strategy in Syria — and disagreed with the plan Pence laid out in the vice presidential debate.

Did he win? Maybe, maybe not, but at best he stopped the bleeding after losing support over the weekend, versus expressing contrition and trying to win back those who’ve abandoned him.

Interesting strategy.

Not that it won’t work — it’s become abundantly clear that Trump will be able to keep his base in place.

The aftermath of Trump’s 2005 comments shows that no matter how repulsive and hateful he is, his supporters are more than happy to excuse him.

They booed Nevada Rep. Joe Heck during a campaign appearance Saturday when Heck did a 180 in his support for Trump. Then came a Politico/Morning Consult poll showing that 74 percent of GOP respondents said they wanted the party to stand behind Trump.

We’ll leave it to sociologists to figure out why Americans would want to be represented by someone who was caught on tape boasting about sexually assaulting women, even if he did say tonight that he never attacked anyone.

As for those who question Trump’s fitness to serve, however, he did nothing to convince them to vote for him.

Again, interesting strategy. But given that Trump was already trailing in many polls before the scandal, it may not have been an effective one.

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