Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that his campaign is “not in crisis” and that there is “zero chance I’ll quit.”
“I never, ever give up,” Mr. Trump said. He also said his campaign isn’t in crisis: “The support I’m getting is unbelievable, because Hillary Clinton is a horribly flawed candidate.”
Mr. Trump said he is considering making a speech on Saturday night to discuss the controversy as well as his campaign’s positions. He said the commotion over his remarks will blow over as it did in other instances, such as after his attacks on Sen. John McCainand his proposed ban on Muslims.
About his sexually charged statements caught on tape, Mr. Trump said, “People get it. They get life.”
Asked about the reaction of the two women with whom he is closest, wife Melania Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump, he replied: “I was with Ivanka yesterday; I’m with Melania now. They fully understand, and they’re very loyal.”
Unlike in a video he taped and released last night, Mr. Trump, who spoke on Saturday from his Manhattan home in Trump Tower, offered no apologies in the Journal interview, but rather went on the offensive. “Go behind closed doors of the holier-than-thou politicians and pundits and see what they’re saying. I look like a baby.”
Since the disclosure of the 2005 video in which Mr. Trump describes his attempt to have sex with a married woman and talks in graphic terms about how he makes advances on women, a growing stream of Republican figures have either rescinded their endorsements of his candidacy or have asked him to leave the top of the GOP ticket.
Former GOP presidential contender Carly Fiorina on Saturday called on him to quit the campaign, as did Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Mike Lee of Utah. New Hampshire Sen.Kelly Ayotte, in a tight race to save her seat, withdrew her endorsement.
Responding to that wave of defections, Mr. Trump said such a reaction from Republicans “is why they don’t win presidential elections.” Meanwhile, he said, “my phone hasn’t stopped ringing, emails are coming in and even people outside Trump Tower are supporting me.”
Is Mike Pence having second thoughts?
This morning, Pence called Trump and told him he had to handle the next 48 hours alone. He didn't think he'd be an effective surrogate.
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) October 8, 2016
As the pressure was building on Trump to drop out, he issued this defiant tweet:
The media and establishment want me out of the race so badly – I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2016
Donald Trump is not in trouble today because of the media or the “establishment.” His troubles are entirely his to own up to. The fact that he is continually trying to pass his words and behavior off as typical locker room banter and by saying that his detractors say worse denotes a pathological avoidance of reality.
He’s right, though. He can’t drop out. So he better figure out a way to convince the American people that he recognizes what he said was inappropriate and beyond the pale for any man — especially a presidential candidate.
If he can’t treat women with the respect that any real man should treat a woman, he should slink back to the gutter with his sneering, leering pals and disappear from public life.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member