Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s lewd video remarks about women threw his White House campaign and the Republican Party into crisis on Saturday, just 30 days from the election and on the eve of his second debate with Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Trump nevertheless rejected growing calls from elected members of his own party to step aside over the 2005 remarks, insisting there is “zero chance I’ll quit” the presidential race.
Trump’s own wife Melania said she was offended by her husband’s “unacceptable and offensive” comments boasting about his ability to grope women as he pleases.
However, she urged US voters to support him.
“I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world,” Melania Trump said in a statement.
The videotape, released on Friday by the Washington Post, forced a rare apology from a campaign already peppered by controversies over Trump’s treatment of women, roiling his Republican Party.
Republican reaction to the videotape came fast and furious, with some calling on the bombastic billionaire to step aside, or allow his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, to take the top of the ticket.
By Saturday, about a dozen senators, a dozen members of the House of Representatives and three governors — all Republicans — had withdrawn their support.
Among senior party figures, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said: “Enough! Donald Trump should not be president. He should withdraw.”
Actor Robert de Niro also weighed in, saying: “I’d like to punch him in the face.”
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