Buoyed by a bump in the polls Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was able to kick back a bit this week, watching the Trump train go off the tracks over the Republican candidate’s lewd videotaped remarks about women.
The vulgar comments—caught in a 2005 video released Friday by The Washington Post—had the Republican Party reeling the day before the White House hopefuls square off in their second debate.
Just one month before the November 8 election, here’s a quick-hit summary of this week’s campaign highlights:
Clinton gains ground -
Democrat Clinton improved her national poll standing over her Republican rival, taking 45 percent versus Trump’s 40 percent in a four-person race, extending her lead by nearly four points from last month’s Quinnipiac survey.
The poll of 1,064 likely voters nationwide shows a dramatic shift toward Clinton among those not registered with any party. Independents now back her 46 percent to 32 percent, compared to 42-35 for Trump in late September.
She now leads in nine of 13 crucial battlegrounds states including Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
‘This is horrific’ -
The emergence of the 2005 video in which Trump boasts about his ability to grope women as he pleases without impunity dealt his campaign a serious blow, with many elected members of his own party urging him to throw in the towel.
“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful - I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Trump said in the tape.
“When you’re a star they let you do it.
“Grab them by the pussy,” he added. “You can do anything.”
Trump nevertheless rejected growing calls from elected US Republicans that he step aside in the presidential race over the remarks, insisting there is “zero chance I’ll quit.”
Clinton, who is seeking to become the nation’s first female commander-in-chief, is almost certain to call out Trump about the videotape during the debate.
“This is horrific,” she said on Twitter. “We cannot allow this man to become president.”
Default to Pence? -
Some 37 million Americans got to know the vice presidential hopefuls Tim Kaine and Mike Pence in their only debate Tuesday, launching bitter attacks on the opposing camps during their fiery debate.
The normally genial Kaine, a US senator from Virginia, repeatedly reminded viewers of Trump’s yearlong stream of insults about Mexican immigrants, women and Muslim refugees.
Pence, the governor of Indiana, deflected Kaine’s demand that he defend Trump, instead redirecting the attacks into critiques of President Barack Obama’s administration and Clinton’s record as secretary of state.
But as the Republican ticket found itself mired in fresh scandal, Pence said that as a husband and father he was “offended” by Trump’s remarks. Some Republicans proposed that Pence take over for Trump.
“I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them,” he said in a statement, adding that Sunday night’s debate was an opportunity for Trump “to show what is in his heart.”
Even before Trump’s videotaped remarks were released, the real estate magnate was already seriously hurting, between a sloppy performance in his first debate with Clinton on September 26, a damaging Twitter war against a former Miss Universe and reports he may have paid no income taxes for 18 years.
Pronunciation lessons -
Well known for his sometimes random tangents, Trump made a sharp rhetorical turn Wednesday as he was discussing the devastating rise in heroin and meth overdoses in Nevada—giving a quick lecture on how to pronounce the state’s name.
“Heroin overdoses are surging and meth overdoses in Neh-VAH-da,” the Republican candidate said. “When I came out here I said nobody says it the other way. It has to be Neh-VAH-da right?”
Twitter pounced on the bombastic billionaire: “Wait. Did @realDonaldTrump just claim he pronounced ‘Nevada’ correctly by mispronouncing it five times?” quipped one social media user.
“If Trump wants to come down from the penthouse his daddy bought him to lecture us on Nevada, he could at least pronounce it correctly,” tweeted the state’s US senator Harry Reid.
Hurricane Matthew enters the fray -
Fierce Hurricane Matthew also entered the already turbulent campaign, threatening to disrupt voter registration in crucial swing states.
The slightly weakened storm lashed Florida in its rampage that left a trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean and up the southeastern US coast, prompting the Clinton campaign to ask Florida officials to extend the state’s October 11 voter registration deadline.
But the southeastern state’s Republican Governor Rick Scott refused, telling reporters Thursday that he does not “intend to make changes” and that “people have had time to register.”
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley—also a Republican—did giver voters extra time to register in the conservative-leaning state as it braced for Hurricane Matthew’s arrival.
Online registrations there will be accepted if submitted by midnight Sunday, and those sent by mail must be postmarked by Tuesday.
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