Crude comments incite
NEW YORK — Donald Trump reeled Friday under revelations of shockingly crude comments he made about women, dangerously undermining the Republican’s latest attempts to steady a presidential bid at risk of imploding.
Trump tried to head off some of the damage by issuing a statement apologizing “if anyone was offended” by vulgar remarks captured on a 2005 tape and made public Friday. In the recording, Trump describes trying to have sex with a married woman and brags about women letting him kiss and grab them because he is famous.
“When you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
He adds seconds later, “Grab them by the p----. You can do anything.”
The one-sentence response from the head of Trump’s Republican Party was devastating.
“No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever,” said Reince Priebus, who had stood by Trump through his past provocative comments.
Other Republicans, painfully aware of the possible impact on their own political fates, were quick to chime in. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is locked in a close race, called the comments “totally inappropriate and offensive.”
Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was “beside himself” and his wife was furious, according to a person familiar with their thinking. That person spoke on the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to share the private discussion.
In public, Pence ignored questions shouted by reporters in Rossford, Ohio, where he was campaigning with his daughter.
Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, seized on Trump’s quotes, calling them “horrific.” She said in a Twitter message: “We cannot allow this man to become president.”
But she had her own problems with revelations.
The WikiLeaks organization posted what it said were thousands of e-mails from Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta, including some with excerpts from speeches she gave to Wall Street executives — speeches she has declined to release despite demands from Trump.
The excerpts include Clinton seeming to put herself in the free trade camp, a position she has retreated from. In a talk to a Brazilian bank in 2013, she said her dream was “a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders.”
Trump strongly opposes current U.S. trade deals and insists Clinton is too cozy with Wall Street to reform it.
Friday’s revelations came two days before Trump and Clinton are to meet in Sunday’s second presidential debate, with the Republican urgently in need of a strong performance. After his uneven showing in the first contest, public opinion polls have showed Clinton pulling ahead in nearly all battleground states, some of which are already in the midst of early voting.
While Trump has survived numerous controversies that would have sunk other candidates, Friday’s developments came at a crucial moment. Less than five weeks from Election Day, he needs to expand his support and is struggling in particular with minorities and women.
