Donald Trump in Virginia Beach Saturday; Far Behind in Virginia Polls

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA — Despite two recent polls showing him trailing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by double digits in Virginia, GOP nominee Donald Trump will hold a rally Saturday at Regent University in Virginia Beach.

The 3 p.m. event is scheduled at the school's library plaza.

Regent University (formerly CBN University) founder Pat Robertson is a Trump supporter and recently defended the candidate after a video from an Access Hollywood shoot 11 years ago showed him making lewd comments about women.

As he has done for decades, Roberston — who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988 with backing from the so-called Christian coalition — took to the bully pulpit on his 700 Club television show and in this case brushed off Trump's comments in the video following the second presidential debate.

"A guy does something 11 years ago; it was a conversation in Hollywood where he’s trying to look like he’s macho," Robertson said during the broadcast, adding that critics would rue writing Trump's political obituary.

"This is supposed to be the death blow and everybody writes him off, ‘OK, he’s dead, now you’ve got to get out of the way and let Mike Pence run the campaign,' " Robertson said. "The Donald says no . . .He’s like the Phoenix. They think he’s dead, he’s come back. And he came back strong."

In Virginia, polls indicate otherwise.

Clinton leads Trump by 15 percentage points in a poll released Sunday by Christopher Newport University's Wasson Center for Public Policy. And a Washington Post-SurveyMonkey poll released a couple of days ago has Trump trailing Clinton by 11 points.

Last week, noted University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato told Patch he wasn't surprised about reports the Trump campaign was planning to pull back its presence in the state.

"Tim Kaine's addition to the ticket iced Virginia for the Democrats," he said of Clinton's running mate. "I'm amazed Trump and (running mate Mike) Pence have spent so much time and energy here — a big waste for them."

Nearly two weeks ago, the Trump campaign fired state campaign chairman Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County of Supervisors, following an unauthorized protest event at RNC headquarters in D.C.

In August, outgoing U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia Beach resigned his membership in the city’s Republican party because, according to an aide, he was facing expulsion for not backing Trump, reported Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons