Dems slam GOP for standing by Trump after tape release

Democrats are hammering vulnerable Republican senators standing by Donald Trump as they look to seize on the GOP presidential nominee’s lewd comments about seducing women as a down-ballot game-changer.

It’s a strategy Senate Democrats have used all cycle with mixed success. But the recording from 2005, as well as the number of Republicans who have since withdrawn their support, gives them fresh ammunition to effectively tie Republicans to Trump and flip enough seats to regain control of the Senate.

{mosads}“This implosion provides a real opportunity to make these down-ballot candidates pay a price for being in the same party as Trump,” said Jim Manley, a former spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“For any [Republican] not in a red state, they’ve got to be petrified at what’s going on right now. Trump’s campaign is spiraling out of control, and they’ve got to be concerned they are going to get wrapped up in it.”

Friday’s bombshell release shocked the political world, as Trump could be heard on audio from 2005 talking about groping women without their consent.

The comments prompted a flurry of rebukes from Republicans looking to distance themselves from his comments, and more than two dozen GOP lawmakers withdrew their endorsements.

Vulnerable GOP senators have been faced with an almost impossible decision — if they cut ties with Trump, their base could be compelled to stay on the couch on Election Day. If they stand by him, they risk alienating swing voters.

Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and John McCain (Ariz.), as well as Rep. Joe Heck (Nev.), all decided to break from Trump ahead of their own competitive races.

But others facing some of the toughest challenges this cycle have not gone as far. Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Rep. Todd Young (Ind.) are all standing by their endorsements, while Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) continues to hedge.

All nine of those legislators hail from states Trump won in the primary, ensuring that a critical mass of pro-Trump Republicans will be watching their every move.

Democrats smell blood and have spent the past few days dropping avalanches of criticism on their rivals, particularly on those who chose not to throw Trump overboard.

“Friday just changed everything,” Patrick Murray, director at the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said of the Trump tape release.

“Now that people have this kind of a visceral reaction to what Donald Trump said, it’s much easier to say: ‘How can you still stand by this person as a role model?’ ”

Rubio’s opponent, Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, has called on the Florida senator to either withdraw his support of Trump or drop out of the Senate race.

When Rubio confirmed Tuesday he’d stand by Trump, Murphy’s campaign released a statement, chiding Rubio for standing for “nothing but his own pursuit of power.”

Katie McGinty, Toomey’s Democratic opponent in Pennsylvania, accused him of canceling a Monday event with high schoolers because he couldn’t face the students after Trump’s comments. In a press call, she challenged him to “man up and declare Donald Trump to be what he is.”

Speaking at a “Women for Toomey” event on Tuesday, Toomey said he is “unpersuaded” by Trump but would not rule out voting for him.

And the North Carolina Democratic Party is out with a new video tarring Burr as Trump’s enabler as Democrat Deborah Ross continues to condemn Burr for his support.

Democrats have tried to link Republicans to Trump at every twist and turn of the race, but it hasn’t always proved effective. Many GOP lawmakers in toss-up races have been outperforming the top of the ticket so far.

Murray noted his polling shows that many voters in several high-profile races are unaware that the Republican had backed Trump in the first place. He added that the responsibility falls on Democrats to make that link clear.

A Republican strategist working in a tight race said he’s hopeful his party’s candidates can keep the attention focused on more local issues.

“Anything that gives the top-of-the-ticket Democrats a boost is going to make it more challenging,” he said.

“But there is still heavy emphasis, to Republicans’ advantage, on this being localized races. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily going to win, but it will force voters to judge them on their own merits.”

One Democratic strategist in a toss-up Senate race was hesitant to describe the fallout from the tape as a game-changer just yet but said that it could “absolutely” help bolster the party’s chances of retaking the upper chamber.

“I think it makes the Republican’s job harder to speak to swing voters, and I think it makes the Republican’s job harder to turn folks out,” he said. “Sometimes you get different dynamics in different states, but both of those are clearly in play here.”

Democrats are trumpeting the limited polling they have to show a worrying trend for Republicans nationwide.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted after Friday’s comments, but before Sunday’s presidential debate, found Democrats winning a generic congressional ballot 49 percent to 42 percent.

New internal polling released on Tuesday by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s House campaign arm, also shows Democrats could gain from the controversy.

A generic Democrat running against a generic Republican “who continues to endorse Donald Trump” leads by 12 points, the same amount as a Democrat whose opponent just withdrew their support of Trump. That’s a gain of 5 points on the generic ballot.

Yet a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Sunday shows that nearly three-quarters of Republicans want party leaders to stick with Trump — underscoring the delicate balance Republicans need to strike to stabilize their base.

For Republicans’ part, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned lawmakers to exercise caution when it comes to Trump while still encouraging them to run their own races.

In the lower chamber, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) expressed a similar sentiment on Monday that Republicans can deal with Trump in their own way in an effort to preserve the House majority.

Another Republican strategist noted that through last week, a number of vulnerable Republicans haven’t seen a down-ballot drag. But the strategist acknowledged that if Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton surges to a double-digit lead on the back of the Trump audio, there could be a trickle-down effect.

“It’s clear that many of these Republicans are going to try to run out the clock and take the McConnell line, which is they will not talk about Donald Trump,” he said. “They are pretending he doesn’t exist in order to survive and with the hopes they can survive.”