Dozens of Republicans have abandoned their support for the New York billionaire, including U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who never endorsed Trump, has said he can't support a man who defended a 2005 video where he bragged about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women as "locker room talk."
It's uncertain how the video's release by the Washington Post last week has impacted his campaign. Two new Ohio polls released Thursday tell differing stories, one shows Trump with a 1-point lead, and one shows Clinton with a 2-point lead. But Nate Silver, with the FiveThirtyEight blog and who accurately predicted Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 wins, show Clinton winning Ohio and the election on Nov. 8.
But many Republicans are standing by Trump, denouncing his comments toward women but supporting the policies.
Chants of “lock her up” and “U.S.A.” were peppered during the warm-up acts, which included Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Melinda Klueber, of Northern Kentucky, was in line about two hours before the doors opened to see and hear Trump speak. She said Trump’s comments about women “are disgraceful” and “horrid” but has accepted his apology.
“I strongly believe in his policies and I want to feel safe again and I’ve seen the last eight years what it’s done to me physically — where I’ve almost lost my home through the recession and now I’m unemployed,” Klueber said. “I don’t like the corruption.”
A pair of Cincinnati residents were at U.S. Bank Arena to support the man they say “is the only one that can (save the country).”
“I just think they’re out to get the Donald from the very beginning,” said Diana Bevins, of Cincinnati, referencing the sudden surfacing of the 2005 tape where Trump made lewd comments about women, and the recent reports of alleged sexual assaults.
And her friend, Martha Miners said if Clinton is elected, it will be an extention of what she believes is a bad situation with the Obama Administration.
“She is a criminal and I think we’ll have another four years of the same thing we have with Obama,” she said. “I want somebody new. I think he can do much better.”
Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel said though he found Trump’s comments “offensive and wrong and strongly condemns them,” he said supporting Clinton would be “continuing the disastrous policies of the Obama administration.”
“For the sake of the Supreme Court, Second Amendment, religious liberty, fight against radical Islam and many other issues, his endorsement and vote for Mr. Trump still stands,” he said.
Butler County GOP Executive Chairman Todd Hall echos those sentiments.
“Actions speak louder than words,” he said. Clinton’s actions and inactions as a corrupt liberal politician are a much greater concern to the future of our nation.”
“The videos, I don’t really care about,” he said. And he “doesn’t necessary believe” the reports of alleged sexual assaults by Trump against women.
“It’s all a ploy to go ahead and everything to desecrate him more and more and more,” Guthrie said. “I think we really should be more worried about the emails that came out.”
And if another wave of hacked Clinton campaign emails come out, he thinks the alleged 33,000 deleted emails from when she served as secretary of state will come out via Wikileaks.
“And they’re going to be a bombshell come out within the next week,” he said.
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