The vast majority of voters across the United States say they have been offended at some point by former President Donald J. Trump. But a sizable number of those voters say that has not stopped them from supporting him.
Overall, 70 percent of voters said that the former president had ever offended them, according to new polling from The New York Times and Siena College.
But big differences emerge when voters were asked when they were offended.
Nearly half — 46 percent — of the group said that they had been offended recently. Ms. Harris won that group by a margin of more than 80 percentage points.
But it was a different story among the 23 percent who said that they had been offended by Mr. Trump, but further in the past. Mr. Trump won that group by roughly 40 percentage points.
The question of offensive rhetoric has been a feature of Mr. Trump’s candidacy as long as he has been running for president. He began his first run for the presidency in 2015 by claiming that Mexico was sending “rapists” into America. He won that election after a tape surfaced in which bragged about grabbing women’s genitals. More recently he falsely claimed that immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets.
And for nearly as long, his Democratic opponents have tried to appeal to voters who might find him offensive.
“Of course Haitian immigrants aren’t eating cats and dogs,” said Marquez Miller, 33, of Orange Park, Fla., who said he intended to support Ms. Harris in November. “They’re new to the country, so for their president to say that is horrible.”
But the Times/Siena data shows that Mr. Trump’s language is not necessarily a liability for all voters.
Ariel Roe, 23, a recent college graduate in New York City who is about to start a job in accounting, says she has had issues with things Mr. Trump has said before but still plans to vote for him.
“I don’t love the things he’s said in the past; grabbing women by the you know what,” she said. “But with politicians, nobody can be perfect.”
Ms. Roe said that while she is aligned with Democrats on some issues, Mr. Trump’s economic policies win out.
The group who said they had been offended by Mr. Trump in the past but still support him was mostly white, but was also more likely to be Latino than voters overall. They were more likely to be men, and less likely to be college-educated, than the rest of the public.
And they were more politically disengaged, and much less likely to be regular news consumers than the broader electorate.
“I don’t pay much attention to the news,” said Cristal Bailey, 52, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. “But I know Trump is honest. And yeah, he’s a little racist, but I feel like he might just be as racist as your next-door neighbors.”
Ms. Bailey, who is Black, said she planned to support Mr. Trump in November despite his past racist comments because she believes that he cares about real people and their problems.
Shirley Trevino, 49, of New Braunfels, Texas, said she had been offended by what she called Mr. Trump’s “locker room talk,” but said she planned to support him in November. “I don’t agree with some of the things he says,” she said. “He’s pretty blunt. I’m the same, but there’s a time and place.”
“I’m not offended by things he says about Hispanic people, because he’s speaking a lot of truth,” added Ms. Trevino, who is Hispanic. “People are coming here illegally and they need to go through the process. We have a process to make sure we weed out bad people who are coming here.”
Few of Mr. Trump’s core supporters said they had ever found him offensive.
But over the past year slightly more voters have said that they had recently taken offense with something Mr. Trump said. Nearly half of voters now say they have found Mr. Trump offensive recently, up from 41 percent in April.
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