‘Undecideds’ Focus Group Loved Trump Last Night, But Had Big Beef with ‘Locker-Room Talk’

Donald Trump had a singular goal going into Sunday’s presidential debate: Stop the bleeding.

After The Washington Post published audio from a 2005 conversation between Trump and media personality Billy Bush in which the GOP nominee speaks about women with extremely graphic and predatory language, traditional and social media were set on fire.

Pollster Frank Luntz had a focus group of undecided Missouri voters watch the debate, and rate the candidates’ answers, as well as their overall performance. After the event was finished, Luntz asked the group, “Which candidate had the biggest impact on your vote tonight?” 18 of the 30 focus group participants chose Trump, while only five selected Clinton.

He asked for short phrases to describe Donald Trump:

“I still feel he’s skirting the issues.”

“Much improved.”

“Calm and strong.”

“The bar is set so low for him.”

“He seemed more presidential.”

Luntz then played two back-to-back clips of Trump defending the leaked audio–one in which Trump did very well with the group, and one in which he crashed and burned.

First, the good:

TRUMP: “I apologize to my family, I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it, but this is locker-room talk. You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, and frankly, drowning people in steel cages; where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over…”

While the dials of the Clinton-leaning undecideds shot down, and stayed down, the dials of Trump-leaning undecideds and fully undecideds went up.

Now, the bad:

TRUMP: “I have great respect for women; nobody has more more respect for women than I do. I said things that, frankly, you hear these things.”

Trump’s apology plus the pivot to a worldwide issue of importance seemed to give many undecided voters a good impression. However, when Trump employed his usual “nobody has more more respect for women than I do” line, and tried to shift blame, undecideds decidedly didn’t like that.

Things took an interesting turn when several participants argued amongst themselves about Trump’s words.

One male participant said that actions should speak louder than words, but the female to his right wasn’t having it, asserting, “I don’t think it should be put behind him. This is an issue of character. I have daughters.” The man responded by saying that “it’s locker-room talk. I have buddies who have never done anything wrong…” He was then cut off by another participant.

While the male participant seemed to believe that “locker-room talk” isn’t a big deal, some other participants simply saw it as a core character issue that cannot be overcome or undone with a single debate performance.

On the other side of things, CNN/ORC conducted an official post-debate poll, which had 57% of viewers calling the debate for Clinton, and 34% for Trump. A marked improvement from the last round, but still a sharp divide. 63% said Trump did better than they expected.

However, of those surveyed, 58% were alleged Clinton supporters. So until further polling is conducted, take that with a grain of salt.