Mississippi Republican officials were standing with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday in the wake of the release of tapes made several years ago showing Trump using lewd comments about women and sexual assault allegations.
Scores of public officials across the country retracted endorsements and renounced support for Trump once the tapes were revealed on Friday, including former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and U.S. Sen. John McCain. By Saturday afternoon, no Mississippi Republican had publicly broken with Trump.
State Treasurer Lynn Fitch, who leads the Mississippi Women for Trump campaign group, said she will continue supporting Trump’s candidacy for president, stating she will make this “a teachable moment for Mississippi’s girls and for my male counterparts in public office.”
“As a mother and as a woman in public office, I take my job as a role model very seriously,” Fitch said. “We need to teach today’s girls to be tomorrow’s leaders. That means teaching them to believe that the ability to do great things is not determined by sex, but by your mind, your skills, and your commitment. This task is made more difficult when public figures make comments like these.”
Gov. Phil Bryant, who has stumped and fundraised for Trump the past few months, called Trump’s comments “unacceptable” in a statement, but did not back away from his support for the candidate.
The Associated Press tweeted that in a statement, Bryant said Trump’s comments “do not square with the man I have gotten to know the past few months. He has done the right thing and apologized.”
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker called Trump’s actions “reprehensible and impossible to defend.”
“Most of us have done things in life that make us ashamed and call for a true apology,” Wicker said in a statement Saturday. “It will be important to see if Donald Trump is able to demonstrate genuine remorse and humility.”
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who has disclosed support for Trump in recent months, condemned the comments and said he is looking forward to Trump’s actions in the coming days.
“As a dad of girls, (Trump’s) remarks on video are reprehensible and outside the bounds of decency. I hope his apology is sincere,” Reeves tweeted Saturday morning.
Numerous officials in other states rolled back support for Trump throughout the day on Saturday. News media reports said the Republican National Committee is mulling options moving forward, including dropping Trump from the ticket. Such a move would be complicated by the fact that early voting has begun in several states, and ballots have been printed in others.
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This is disgusting that she supports the guy who is groping for sex. If it were her daughter getting groped, what would she do? These republicans are disgusting, just like Trump. I will never vote for any republican in this state who supports that pervert. My god, he raped a 13 yo kid. Trial is coming up.
That rape case is a fraud just meant to suppress support for Trump!
The sad part is what Trump talked about in that tape is the reality of Hollywood. A lifestyle he did not invent and a life style that will continue as long as Hollywood exist.
As if you witnessed what you accuse. Get off of your high horse, stop casting stones, and find a way to accept the apology for unacceptable comments made 11 years ago, recorded and released by a more despicable slime ball who encouraged the unacceptable commentary and now thinks there is something to be gained by the release of the audio clip. More importantly, look at the only alternative you have. If this one audio clip, conveniently released now, is the deal breaker for you, and now, suddenly, your support is gained by the likes of Clinton, you are the disgusting one. Our options this election cycle are pitiful, but our GOP establishment failed to provide a better, viable candidate. It is time to shake up and dismantle that establishment and continue to send them a message that it won’t be tolerated. You don’t have to like Trump, or his past, but enabling Hillary to set foot into the Oval Office cannot be allowed.
you mean the insincere, non-apology that he used to try to blame Hillary for Bill’s faults? That “apology”?. Why is someone a slimeball for revealing what an evil man trump is? the thing that is to be gained is not putting a loser and a total incompetent into office who will tear up the constitution and shift MORE of the tax burden to middle and lower class citizens, who are already paying more than their fair share. How can a vet support the man who has not only insulted veterans constantly, and will defund any help they should be getting? You are a disgrace to our country, sir. When your party fails to offer a good candidate you don’t reward them by voting for it, you show them that we will not accept their bad and foolish choices. Stand up for america, not show loyalty where it is not deserved nor earned. Clinton is indeed far from perfect, but she is at least viable. She has had a SUCCESSFUL career in politics for over 30 years. trump has engineered 5 bankruptcies so he can rob money from US the citizens to support his lifestyle, refused to pay for valid services and work, and wants to get us into MORE wars we don’t need. Trickle down economics have been proven to be a lie and unworkable for the last 40-50 years. Giving the rich tax breaks just makes hem throw million dollar parties and give themselves huge bonuses like during the bailout. But to actually support a man who admits he is a rapist and a pervert is just beyond the understanding of anyone sane and reasonable..
Wow, what delusional rock garden did you crawl from beneath? Bitter much?
Judging from this and other venomous, ranting posts of yours, you are a died-in-the-wool Hillary supporter who cannot be moved from your opinions, regardless of their basis in an alternate reality. But, one can always hope.
Your candidate is the only one who has supported and defended her lying, evil husband’s numerous, actual, documented crimes against women. She still does, and has yet to acknowledge the basis of his impeachment or his plethora of other, reprehensible crimes against women. The Clintons remain inseparable and, yes, he is not running for office again, but he is actively and heavily campaigning for her and she allows it. If you don’t see the huge impropriety that exists in his strong-arming of the Attorney General, during the course of an investigation against Hillary, you are an idiot. It doesn’t take a genius to connect these dots, only a logical, non-delusional person.
I also assume that you never supported Sanders who, IMO would have been at least a marginally better candidate than Hillary. So, we won’t talk about which party produced the better candidate this cycle or which party’s candidate never had a chance, thanks to Hillary’s perverted and underhanded tactics.
As for your allusion to which candidate will absolutely raise taxes on all income classes, you could not be more wrong. Hillary has stated on numerous occasions that she will raise taxes. She also wants to salvage Hillarycare/Obamacare by raising even more taxes. In fact, there is no area where she wants to cut taxes or reduce costs to taxpayers. If you think that these are the stances of her opponent, then you need your head examined, or a quick review of actual facts, not the “facts” lifted from hillaryclinton.com.
I would be curious to know what “successes” you consider Hillary to have been a part of over the last 30 years. I know of none, unless you consider successes to be her contributions to the murder of Americans in Benghazi and those of the unborn. Maybe you are referring to her repeated attempts to undermine the Constitution that you somehow think her opponent will duplicate, even though he’s never hinted at that, even once. Only your candidate voted for war; not her opponent.
When you find a quote from Trump admitting to being a rapist, let us know. Otherwise, there’s a delusional rock garden missing its idiot; crawl back home safely. We’ll still love you, delusion and all, after the election.
It’s safe to say Phil Bryant talks out of both sides of his mouth.
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2016/08/31/bryant-sexual-discrimination-not-tolerated/88910900/
thank you for acting like a real american and not a liberal hypocrite, all of you offended liberals out there, i do not hear you talking about the 17 woman that bill clinton raped, or about the woman whose lives hillary destroyed because they had the courage to bring these rapes to light, by the way there were 80 million copies of 50 shades of grey sold, and it was a box office smash, really, S&M is acceptable, domination is not disgusting, but somehow trump is just so insulting that we have to hang him in the public square, and how about the man that came forward and said that he was smoking crack and performing oral sex on senator barack obama, and that he was having a drug riddled sexual relationship with him, this dont offend your sensibilities, america is being brainwashed and herded into the sheep pen, let me ask you this ? what do you think they are going to do to the sheep once they get them all into the pen? people better wake up and smell the reality of what is going on here, meanwhile while you are all focused on trumps offensive words, YOU ARE IGNORING ALL OF THE WIKI LEAKS , AUDIO, AND E MAILS THAT CAME OUT THIS WEEK, proving that hilary clinton is not only a criminal but a traitor and A murderer
oh, so being a hypocrite is okay if it is a GOP hypocrite? Liberals are not offended, they are astounded that people who claim to be god fearing and moral would vote for the embodiment of satan anyway, just because our party offered him for their choice.
Go on, talk about Bill Clinton all you want. Hillary is NOT BILL CLINTON. But if we are judging on spouses, let’s look at the work of trumps wife, the playboy model and porn star. What about that? 50 shades of gray? you mean the book all the CHRISTIANS bought? Or are you referring to the fact that theists are the ones keeping the porn industry alive and well with Guess what? Hillary didn’t write it, so what are you talking about? Hillary’s leaked documents still do not make her anywhere near as bad as an admitted rapist and child molester. Why is that not clear to all of the rest of the GOP? Why are you willing to make such insane excuses for him just because he is your parties nominee? What about loyalty to america and yourself instead of loyalty to a party that has betrayed u with such an undeserving nominee? Why should we sacrifice the constitution and all the freedoms we have fought so hard to get, to elect a perverted criminal? I say show our party, the GOP that we will NOT accept evil candidates just because they push them on us.
Despite being on the state’s 3-member bond review board and having zero input on the state’s insistence on adding over $300M to bond debt in frivolous bond projects, only to complain to the media about it after the fact, is also a “teachable moment,” Mrs. Fitch.