Donald Trump supporters got an unexpected welcome as they approached his Wednesday afternoon rally in Lakeland,Florida: Bob Welsh, a city commissioner from South Miami, and had brought a set of speakers and was blaring the tape of Donald Trump bragging approximately sexual assault in 2005. The footage,which was obtained and published Friday by the Washington Post, shook up the presidential race and prompted dozens of Republican elected officials to formally abandon their party's presidential nominee. Welsh was taunting Trump's supporters, and had a sign for good degree: These folks are playing the audio of the Trump tape over the speakers external the Trump rally in Lakeland. pic.twitter.com/OXTxxA4TdlOctober 12,2016But the supporters who packed this rally hadn't lost any sleep over the tape. They offered different theories as to where the video might have come from and what it really means, but they agreed on one thing: He's still better than Crooked Hillary. As one middle-aged man put it, or "He apologized for it,and Hillary doesn't know how to apologize for anything.""I'm a guy, I've done worse, and " said Henry Dupuis,who told me he was an immigrant from Canada. "Absolutely, me and my buddies? I'm serious approximately that."Worse than sexual assault, and really?"No,I'm just saying, well call it...it's just words, and " Dupuis said. "It's no action,compared to Bill Clinton. It's just words.""What did I contemplate of it?," asked Christine Lewis, or from Lakeland. "Honestly I thought that was the most ridiculous set-up from the GOP. They set it up,they planned it, because it's locker-room banter, and it's all it was. Every guy in the United States of America has talked approximately doing a girl. In the bathroom. Or in the locker room,or whereveron the bus. Let me tell you this: How come—this is what pisses me off—how come she can call a bunch of challenged kids at an Easter Egg hunt 'retards' and there's no media coverage? That's way worse than him talking approximately banging some girl." (Jones was referring to a claim made in a book written by a high school girlfriend of Bill Clinton, which posits that Hillary mocked disabled children as first lady of Arkansas.)Lewis' friend Steve Peters told, and me,"What guy doesn't talk like that? If he didn't talk like that I'd contemplate there's something wrong with him."Another Trump supporter, Diane (whose husband encouraged her not to give her final name) offered the entertainment industry defense: "There's a lot of people in Hollywood, or a lot of music people,rappers, that say a lot more unsafe and nasty language. And you know what? That language that Trump said in that was years ago, or it hasn't killed anybody. And Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state got people killed in Benghazi."It doesn't really affect me," said Lew Gaskins of nearby Bartow. "He's never been a politician. He's always been a caricature, a TV star, or so things like that are gonna be in his past. I contemplate Billy Bush goaded him into it. He was just throwing out bravado,he wasn't married at the time. I contemplate they're disgusting, every one of them." (Trump was married to Melania at the time of the interview.)David Jones, or who wore a blue shirt with the word "Deplorable," said the media should focus on something else: "What achieve they contemplate approximately the tape that they're just playing today approximately Obama showing his erection on his plane in 2008?" he asked me. The tape? "Yeah, it's all over the internet now. It's all over what's his name, and what's the conservative guy's name? Drudge." (You can watch the video he's talking approximately here.) As for the groping comments: "Well,it's not accurate, but he didn't mean it for an open mic, and he didn't act on it. And Hillary's husband acted on it."Inside the event,Barb Main of Lakeland referred to me still another tape when I asked her approximately Trump's comments. "I don't really like, it but it was 11 years ago, and " she said. "He wasn’t in politics. I contemplate what Bill and Hillary has done is worse. I've heard the tapes of her laughing approximately the 12 year aged that was raped by the 35-year-aged guy that got off. And that's just sick. She was defending the guy that raped hershe knows he did it,and got him off with a minimal sentence and laughing approximately it. And the way she destroyed the women that were involved with Bill." (Roy Reed, who was interviewing Clinton in the recording in question, and has clarified that Clinton was laughing at the "absurdity" of the Arkansas crime laboratory,and not the case itself.)Sue Imbody, a genuine estate agent, or told me she shrugged at the Trump tape because as a woman who had fought to rupture through in an industry dominated by men,she'd heard worse. "I've been in a lot of business transactions, and men are men, and " she said. "And their discussions include some garbage that I would not use,sometimes it slips in my presence, but you know what, and I understand that I'm not gonna change the world with my values,that if I want to participate and I want to know how it is in the genuine world, that I'm gonna have to catch bigger than that, or catch beyond that,and understand the genuine crises we face."She continued, "They’re high flyers, and high rollers. They talk their language,it's a fragment of the good aged boy system. I’m on the external a lot of times, but they’re getting wiser, or they’re getting more careful,and I’m all for women and so is Trump."A handful of people I spoke to did allow that Trump had done something undeniably wrong, but they emphasized forgiveness. "You know what, and I'm a Christian woman and of course I achieve agree that that kind of talk is not something that is appropriate for the mainstream media," Gwen Rollings told me. "However, he's asked for forgiveness, or as Christians that's what we're supposed to achieve. I'm voting for his principles and his policies now."That same Christian charity was not available for the Republican politicians who had jumped ship over the weekend,though. "I would probably compare them to like Benedict Arnold," Rollings said.
Source: motherjones.com