“There's been this steady drip of stories raising questions about what is being portrayed as Trump's behavioral problem with women. It started with Megyn Kelly and it continued when he attacked Carly Fiorina,” Walsh said.
Politically, Walsh said that the narrative helps the Clinton campaign excite its base while also targeting white suburban women, traditionally a group of swing voters in an election. For Trump, that's where the political damage lies. “They're going to read that story and maybe they don't vote for Clinton, but maybe they stay home,” Walsh said. “That's just as bad for Trump.”
Some women contradicted the Times’ story Monday, including Senada Adzem, a former Trump International vice president who is now a luxury real estate agent based in Boca Raton, Florida.
“They didn't reach out to me,” Adzem said, referring to the New York Times. “Based on my professional experience, he was very empowering to women.”
Adzem said that Trump was “results-based, regardless of gender.”
“He was tough, but he was always fair and he always empowered women and put them in key positions in his office,” she said.
Trump spent much of Monday swatting away arrows. Fifteen out of his 18 tweets on that day were aimed at defending himself and raising doubt about the Times report. He mentioned Rowanne Brewer, a central woman in the piece, who criticized the Times in an interview with Fox News.
“The @nytimes is so dishonest,” Trump tweeted. “Their hit piece cover story on me yesterday was just blown up by Rowanne Brewer, who said it was a lie!”
The problem for Trump is that Saturday's story followed a piece published by the Washington Post a day earlier that accused Trump of pretending to be his own publicist in telephone interviews with reporters in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Trump strongly denied the accusation, but on Monday, longtime friend Roger Stone confirmed Trump’s decision to speak in third person about himself, and cast it as no big deal.
“Trump wanted to get his spin and his side of the story, so he handled the press call himself, probably because he didn’t want to pay a public relations expert. What difference does it make?” Stone said on Breitbart radio.