Trump declares 'No,' he will not leave race

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Saturday defied some party members' calls for him to quit the presidential race over a 2005 video that surfaced Friday of him talking crudely about women.

Trump, who released a video statement overnight in which he offered an apology for the remarks and at the same time attacked former President Bill Clinton, told The Washington Post on Saturday that he would not drop out of the race under any circumstances.

"I'd never withdraw. I've never withdrawn in my life," Trump said in a Saturday morning phone call from his home in Trump Tower in New York. "No, I'm not quitting this race. I have tremendous support."

By midday Saturday, at least 21 GOP members of Congress and governors who had backed Trump disavowed his candidacy.

[INTERACTIVE: The 2016 election in Arkansas]

Those withdrawing their support for him or calling for him to step aside included: No. 3 Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota; Sen. John McCain of Arizona; Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state during George W. Bush's administration; Rep. Will Hurd of Texas; and even the governor and a pair of U.S. House members from staunchly conservative Alabama. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said party chairman Reince Priebus should either get Trump off the ticket or step down as chairman.

"They're not going to make me quit, and they can't make me quit," Trump said. "The Republicans, you've got to remember, have been running for a long time. The reason they don't win is because they don't stick together."

Republican leaders have scheduled a conference call at 10 a.m. CDT Monday for House GOP lawmakers, who are out of town for Congress' election recess. The email obtained by The Associated Press doesn't specify the topic for the rare conference call, but lawmakers believe it's about Trump.

Some Republican lawmakers said Trump should allow his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, to become the nominee, and some said they'd write "Pence" on their ballots in November. Pence, 57, is a former U.S. House member and has served as a bridge between Trump and the Republican establishment during this year's campaign.

Pence said in a statement Saturday that Trump's comments in the video were offensive and indefensible.

"I am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologized to the American people," Pence said. "We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity he has to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation" in tonight's debate against Hillary Clinton in St. Louis.

The Democratic nominee did not address the video Saturday, choosing instead to wait for the audience at the second presidential debate, according to a campaign official who asked not to be named.

Key Clinton allies have been told about that plan, and while surrogates aren't being asked to stay quiet, they are being told there is no need to speak out on the issue ahead of the debate, the official said.

In the video from 2005, Trump is heard talking to Billy Bush of Access Hollywood about groping women in the "p*," being able to "do anything" to women because of his fame, and trying and failing to "f" a married woman.

That woman was identified late Saturday as Nancy O'Dell, Bush's co-anchor. Two years later, Trump tried to have O'Dell fired as host of the Miss USA pageant, reportedly because she was pregnant. NBC executives had the final decision and kept O'Dell as host.

In the wee hours of Saturday, in the first apology of his campaign, Trump said he regretted his remarks, then said Bill Clinton had said "far worse" to him.

Also, Trump suggested that he will have more to say about Bill Clinton's relationships with women, and Hillary Clinton's treatment of those women, during tonight's debate.

Support for Trump

Other Republicans on Saturday declared their support for Trump, or at least their opposition to Hillary Clinton.

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said Trump's comments were "absolutely unacceptable," but he dismissed the idea that Trump should step aside 30 days before the election, calling that "an unrealistic solution."

"The devastation of Obamacare, the out-of-control regulators, the foreign policy that our friends don't trust us, make a third Obama term an unacceptable alternative," he said.

Asked whether he would vote for Trump, Blunt said: "Didn't I just say that?"

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement Saturday that Trump's remarks about women are unacceptable, but he did not withdraw his support for the candidate.

Bryant said Trump's comments "do not square with the man I have gotten to know the past few months. He has done the right thing and apologized."

Trump campaign CEO Stephen Bannon was seen entering Trump Tower early Saturday speaking on his cellphone. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, top Trump advisers, were also seen entering.

Giuliani later spoke to reporters, saying of those who had withdrawn their support from Trump: "They already didn't support him in the first place, so it's not really a surprise."

"It's basically the insiders against the outsiders, anyway," Giuliani said.

He declared that Trump is a "populist candidate," and those who oppose him are the "establishment."

The Republican National Committee is still publicly backing Trump, though officials are considering how to move forward.

"We are working to evaluate the appropriate messaging," said Sean Spicer, the committee's chief strategist.

The Trump campaign also released a statement from Trump's wife, Melania, in a further effort to quell the damage Saturday.

"The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me. This does not represent the man that I know," said Melania Trump, who was married to Trump when the 2005 video was taped. "He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world."

Ryan booed, heckled

Pence scrapped a planned appearance Saturday afternoon at a Wisconsin political event with House Speaker Paul Ryan. Pence called Trump to tell him of the cancellation, said a person familiar with the matter. Trump's plans to attend the event -- which would have been his first public campaign appearance with Ryan -- had been scrapped earlier, in light of the video.

Ryan was booed and heckled by Trump supporters at the party unity rally in his congressional district after announcing Friday that Trump was no longer welcome.

"There is a bit of an elephant in the room," Ryan said at the opening of his 7-minute speech. "It is a troubling situation, and I'm serious, it is. I put out a statement about this last night. I meant what I said, and it's still how I feel. But that is not what we are here to talk about today."

Many in the crowd made it clear they were standing by Trump.

"Trump is a great man," said Scott Reese, a 40-year-old plumber wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat. "We all make mistakes."

Jean Stanley, a 50-year-old woman from New Berlin, Wis., was at the rally wearing a pink T-shirt with bold, black lettering that said "Wisconsin Women Love Trump."

"He's a real human," Stanley said. "It was a long time ago. We all have something in our past. He was a Hollywood icon then."

Stanley called Ryan a "traitor" for denouncing Trump, a sentiment echoed by Dennis Karbowski, a trucker from Elkhorn, Wis.

"Mr. Trump is human," Karbowski said. "We've all said those things. ... Either you believe in your party or you don't. I don't like Judases."

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, the only speaker to directly address Trump's crude remarks, was heckled when he said "I know Donald Trump has said some things that are bad."

"Get over it!" someone shouted.

Democratic criticism

As the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign turned the controversy into an online fundraising tool, in down-ballot races across the country, Democratic candidates and their campaigns immediately began pressuring their Republican rivals to shun Trump.

By Saturday afternoon, Democrats began accusing the Republicans dumping Trump of opportunism.

In Indiana, Dan Parker -- a senior adviser to Democrat Evan Bayh's Senate campaign -- said Republican rival Todd Young had been "hesitant to stand up to" Trump for months when Trump insulted women, Muslims, and Mexican-Americans, "but now that Trump is hurting politically, he is suddenly rushing to call Trump 'offensive.'"

"Not only is it not enough, it's politics at its most cynical," Parker said.

Some fundraisers for Trump worry that pledged donations might not come in during the final four weeks of the campaign and that new donations might dry up. Ryan fundraising chief Spencer Zwick said he's been fielding calls from donors who "want help putting money together to fund a new person to be the GOP nominee."

But large GOP donors Robert and Rebekah Mercer, two of the most influential figures in Trump's orbit, said Saturday that their support for the GOP nominee has not faltered: "We are completely indifferent to Mr. Trump's locker room braggadocio."

On Saturday, Trump tweeted: "Certainly has been an interesting 24 hours!" He then retweeted two messages from an account labeled as belonging to Juanita Broaddrick, who alleged in 1999 that Bill Clinton had raped her in April 1978.

The tweets accused Bill Clinton of being a "rapist" and accused Hillary Clinton of threatening Broaddrick. The Clintons have repeatedly denied the accusations, and charges were never filed.

Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative and outside Trump adviser, said Saturday that he and the InfoWars conspiracy website were selling 10,000 T-shirts with Bill Clinton's face next to the word "rape," a dark parody of President Barack Obama's 2008 "Hope" posters. Stone worried that Trump had missed a "prime opportunity" to attack Hillary Clinton over the affairs, but said there was still a way for Trump to litigate it.

"It's not about adultery," Stone said. "It's about Bill hiring heavy-handed private detectives. It's about violence against women. I know you and your colleagues want this to be about infidelity, but it's about Hillary Clinton enabling attacks on women."

But Democrats believe those charges against the Clintons will backfire on Trump, who has been married three times. Democratic strategist Jim Manley said he believes the presidential race is now effectively "over," no matter whether Trump stays or goes.

Republicans, Manley said, "see the handwriting on the wall."

Information from this article was contributed by Jennifer Jacobs, Kevin Cirilli, Mark Halperin, Steven T. Dennis, Billy House, Margaret Talev, and Kim Chipman of Bloomberg News; by Jenna Johnson, Sean Sullivan, Robert Costa, Abby Phillip, Dan Balz, David Weigel, Matea Gold and Jose A. DelReal of The Washington Post; and by Steve Peoples, Jill Colvin, Scott Bauer and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 10/09/2016