Trump comments ‘pale in comparison’ to issues facing country, Kobach says

The controversy over Donald Trump’s lewd comments in an 11-year-old tape has not deterred one of his most prominent backers in Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

“Trump’s comments are reprehensible, but people make mistakes,” Kobach said in an interview.

Trump has faced a barrage of criticism since the Washington Post published a conversation he had with Billy Bush during the filming of an episode of “Access Hollywood” in 2005. On the tape, Trump can be heard bragging about using his celebrity status to get away with sexually assaulting women.

The comments have caused many prominent Republicans to rescind their endorsements of Trump.

Kobach, who made no public comments about the tape over the weekend, said Monday he remains committed to supporting Trump. He cited issues such as border security and the national debt as the reason.

“These issues are so big that his unfortunate comments from 11 years ago really pale in comparison,” Kobach said.

Kobach, the only statewide official to endorse Trump ahead of the Kansas caucus, has advised Trump on immigration policy and played a key role in adding Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to the official Republican Party platform.

After the tape surfaced, a national poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal showed Democrat Hillary Clinton leading Trump 52 percent to 38 percent in a two-way match-up and retaining an 11-point lead when third-party candidates are added.

“I’m very suspicious of all polls this year,” Kobach said, explaining that he thinks pollsters are struggling to predict party turnout. “Every pollster begins with a guess.”

Kobach said he thought Trump’s performance in Sunday’s presidential debate showed a “night and day improvement” over the first debate.

“Trump unquestionably won the debate,” said Kobach, who competed on Harvard’s debate team as an undergraduate.

Kobach, who worked in the U.S. Justice Department during the Bush administration, applauded Trump’s promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server as U.S. secretary of state.

He criticized U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch for not conducting a separate Justice Department investigation after the FBI ended its investigation earlier this year without finding any criminal wrongdoing.

This story was originally published October 11, 2016 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Trump comments ‘pale in comparison’ to issues facing country, Kobach says."