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Why Some Louisville Women Say Trump Will Get Their Vote

Leigh Anne Kleitz spent her Saturday talking politics at TK's Pub.

She joined a few dozen other people at the Fern Creek bar to rally support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Trump appeals to Kleitz because he's tough on immigration, opposes late-term abortion and talks about growing the country's economy. Her support is unwavering, she said, despite mounting controversy surrounding Trump's campaign — and particularly his treatment of women.

Video footage surfaced earlier this month of Trump admitting to sexually assaulting women, and nearly a dozen women have come forward in recent weeks accusing Trump of sexual assault. On Saturday, Trump threatened to sue the women after Election Day.

The accusations and actions have led some prominent Republicans to distance themselves from the party's nominee. And a handful of national polls released this month show Trump is losing the support of women voters. Some polls show Trump lags Democrat Hillary Clinton by more than 30 points when it comes to support among women.

Those are the polls. Of course, some women are planning to vote for Trump. Kleitz is one of them.

"I've not seen enough evidence that he has done any of these things to the women," Kleitz said. "He has a beautiful wife. I don't know why he would go to some of these women that they are showing on TV."

Kleitz, 42, would "rather deal with a man who may have been offensive to a woman at one time" than vote for Clinton, who Kleitz contends is corrupt and a criminal.

Amberlee Blissett agreed. She's 24 years old and in two weeks will vote in her first presidential election. Her vote will be for Trump.

Blissett said Trump's rhetoric can be over the top, and "there's a lot of times I wish he'd just shut up."

But that bravado is appealing, she said.

"I haven't been offended by anything he's said," she said. "I'm more offended by what Hillary has done."

When Blissett heads to the polls, she said she'll be thinking about her 8-week-old son. She wants him to grow up in a country with a government "that is for and by the people."

"Not people that are just getting richer and richer off us," she said of the Clintons. Trump, she said, can do just that. "Because he’s fighting for the American people," she said.

Blissett's mother, Jennifer Givens, joined her for the Saturday rally at the pub. Givens said she isn't the most political person, but she's vowing to support Trump in support of her daughter. For Givens, Trump is "the lesser of the two evils."

"I don't agree with everything" he's done, she said.

Asked about the accusations against Trump, Givens said she doesn't really care about what he did before he decided to run for president.

"That's his wife's problem, not mine," she said.

Jacob Ryan is the managing editor of the Kentucky Center for Investigative reporting. He's an award-winning investigative reporter who joined LPM in 2014. Email Jacob at jryan@lpm.org.