Who released the trump tapes and how long did they sit on them? Game Changer

Let's assume (and reasonably so) that is was democrats since it was NBC footage.

Let's assume they had them during the primaries (as i'm sure someone remembered this and went straight to it)

Ok, so if they released that during the primaries does trump make it out. I would think republican voters would swing to cruz or someone else just out of fear it would irrevocably harm him in the general

Looking at things now, I just don't believe that any other republican would have beat her. They wouldn't have demolished the blue wall, they wouldn't know the pulse of the electorate, wouldn't combat baseless charges of racism and misogyny...

did democrats frick themselves over by sitting on the tape with the belief that trump would be easy pickings in the general?

would be the mother of miscalculations if so. You can also reasonably argue that they dropped it too soon as she had momentum from the first debate (if you believed the polls) and this would've shifted attention and outrage from her emails and given their media pacs (cnn, msnbc etc.) something of a reason to not cover her email scandal or at least downplay it.