Poll: Most Republicans Want Trump To Stay Despite Tape

A Saturday Politico/Morning Consult poll of voters who had seen the tape released Friday in which Donald Trump made his infamous “p***y” remark from 2005 as well as his apology on Friday found near-parity between those voters who thought Trump should stay in the race (45%) and those who thought he should drop out (39%).

There was a clear disparity between Democrats and Republicans on the issue; 70% of Democrats thought he should drop out, while only 12% of GOP voters, and only 13% of GOP women voters, thought he should exit the race.

74% of GOP voters thought GOP officials should continue to back Trump, 13% disagreed. Politico stated, “Operatives in both parties say they believe it will take several days — and Sunday night’s debate at Washington University in St. Louis — to have the video bake into the public consciousness.”

When voters were asked to rate the video on a scale of zero (very negative) to 10 (very positive). 74% of respondents saw the video negatively; 69% of Democrats and 22% of Republicans. 10% of Republicans rated it positively.

61% of voters saw Trump less favorably after viewing the tape and apology. 48% of GOP voters saw Trump less favorably; 36% said it didn’t change their opinion. That 36%

But just 48 percent of GOP voters said it makes them feel less favorably toward Trump, while 36 percent said it doesn’t affect their opinions of Trump.

47% of voters viewed Trump’s apology negatively; 39% viewed it positively. 65% of GOP voters viewed it positively.

Roughly 40% of voters said that a candidate’s support for Trump would make them less likely to vote for the candidate. 41% of GOP voters said continuing support for Trump would make them more likely to support a candidate; 12% disagreed.

31% of voters agreed that renouncing support for Trump would make them more willing to vote for a candidate who did so; 25% disagreed.

The Politico poll may be too early to ascertain how much the Trump video and apology may have hurt him. On October 1, 2011, Herman Cain won the TeaCon Midwest straw poll with 77% of the vote. He also won the National Federation of Republican Women straw poll the same weekend, garnering 48.9 of the vote. A late October Fox News poll found Cain as the front-runner with 24% of the vote.

But then allegations against Cain of past sexual misconduct with female employees came at the end of October. Initially Cain’s poll numbers were not significantly diminished, but by mid-November, two weeks after the allegations were launched, a CNN and ORC International poll found Cain plunging 11% among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. A Washington Post/ABC poll released a poll the same day showed negative feelings about Cain had soared from 27% to 44% among voters.