Most believe allegations about Trump and women

Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 7:56 pm

WASHINGTON >> Donald Trump's behavior has long grated on Carolyn Miller, but the allegations he sexually assaulted women was one factor that helped her decide in the last week to cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton.

"I don't think she's a bad person. Trump, I think, is a bad person," the 70-year-old Fort Myers, Florida, resident said. As for Trump's accusers, Miller added, "I believe them." And she said her vote for Clinton is "a default."

Miller is among the more than 7 in 10 Americans who say in a new Associated Press-GfK poll that they believe the women who say the Republican presidential candidate kissed or groped them without their consent, a verdict that may have turned off enough voters, including some Republicans, to add to his challenges in the presidential race.

Forty-two percent of Republican voters and 35 percent of Trump's own supporters think the accusations are probably true. Men and women are about equally likely to think so.

While the poll suggests the wave of allegations about Trump's treatment of women may blunt the impact of voters' concerns about Clinton, it was taken before Friday's news that the FBI will investigate whether there is classified information in newly uncovered emails related to its probe of her private server. Those emails were not from her server, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss details publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Before the development, the poll found that about half of voters say her use of the private server while she was secretary of state makes them less likely to vote for her. But they were more likely to say that Trump's comments about women bother them a lot than to say the same about Clinton's email server, 51 percent to 43 percent.

Since September, Clinton seems to have consolidated her support within her own party and drawn undecided voters such as Miller to her campaign, or at least pushed them away from Trump. The billionaire's recent trouble with women seems to be one factor preventing him from doing the same.

He feuded with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado after Clinton noted he'd called her "Miss Piggy" for gaining weight while she wore the crown. Days later, a 2005 recording surfaced in which Trump can be heard describing himself sexually assaulting women in a conversation with Billy Bush, then the host of "Access Hollywood."

Several women have since publicly accused Trump of groping and kissing them without permission, including a People magazine reporter who said Trump attacked her when his wife, Melania, was out of the room.

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Trump called his remarks on the video "locker room talk," dismissed the accusations as "fiction" and said of several accusers that they aren't attractive enough to merit his attention.

Asked Thursday on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" whether he thinks he would be ahead were it not for the "Access Hollywood" video, Trump replied, "I just don't know. I think it was very negative."

A majority of voters, 52 percent, say allegations about the way Trump treats women make them less likely to vote for him, including a fifth of Republican likely voters. And within that group, only about a third say they will vote for him, with about a third supporting Clinton and the remainder supporting third party candidates.

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That may help explain why just 79 percent of Republican in the poll said they're supporting Trump compared with 90 percent of Democrats supporting Clinton. Trump needs to close that gap to have any shot at victory.

Trump has tried to equate the accusations against him with charges of infidelity and sexual assault leveled for years against his rival's husband, former President Bill Clinton. Trump has paraded the former president's accusers before the cameras and accused Hillary Clinton of undermining her husband's accusers.

The poll shows a majority of voters don't buy Trump's attempt at equivalence. Six in 10 say the allegations against the Clintons have no impact on their vote. That's despite the fact that 63 percent think Hillary Clinton has probably threatened or undermined women who have accused her husband of sexual misconduct.

"The vote will be about Hillary Clinton, not her husband," said Ryan Otteson, 33, of Salt Lake City, who's voting for a third-party candidate, conservative independent Evan McMullin.

Valori Waggoner, a 26-year-old from Belton, Texas, said she believes Hillary Clinton probably did intimidate her husband's accusers, but she said it makes no difference to how Waggoner is voting.

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Waggoner was not going to vote for Clinton anyway, because as a doctor, Waggoner said she sees firsthand the inefficiency of the national health care plan that Clinton supports. But the alleged wrongdoing by Trump made her less likely to vote for the Republican. Instead, she's backing Libertarian Gary Johnson.

The degree of alleged wrongdoing by the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, Waggoner said, "are not equal."

Most likely voters in the poll say they think Trump has little to no respect for women, with female voters especially likely to say he has none at all.

Clinton leads female likely voters by a 22 point margin in the poll, and even has a slight 5 point lead among men. In September's AP-GfK poll, Clinton led women by a 17 point margin and trailed slightly by 6 points among men.

The AP-GfK Poll of 1,546 adults, including 1,212 likely voters, was conducted online Oct. 20-24, using a sample drawn from GfK's probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 2.75 percentage points, and for likely voters is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn't have access to the internet were provided access for free.

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Poll results: http://ap-gfkpoll.com