Trump vows to remain in race after calls for him to withdraw

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowed on Saturday to remain in the race after prominent members of his party withdrew their support and called for him to drop out following news of a recording of him making lewd comments about women.

Trump sought to do damage control early on Saturday morning in a hastily recorded apology, declaring himself a changed man and attempting to shift the focus to his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump threatened, again, to focus his attacks on the infidelities of former President Bill Clinton, saying he would talk more about the pasts of both Clintons in coming day. Trump has dismissed questions about his own martial infidelities as irrelevant.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday morning "zero chance I'll quit."

Three Republican members of the Senate publicly announced they will not vote for Trump and former rival Carly Fiorina called on him to withdraw.

There is no precedent for a major party to replace their nominee this late in the campaign and it remains unclear if there is an avenue to force him from the race. Voting has already begun in several states, including the important swing states of Virginia and North Carolina.

Disclosure of a 2005 video of Trump talking on an open microphone showed the then-reality TV star speaking openly about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman. The video was taped months after Trump married his third wife, Melania.

Trump took to Twitter on Saturday morning, seeming to make light of the controversy by posting on the online social media website "Certainly has been an interesting 24 hours!"

Trump has struggled to win over women voters, lagging Clinton in the polls. Democrats have sought to highlight past Trump behavior toward women in an effort to erode his support with less than a month to go until the Nov. 8 election.

"Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize," Trump said in his video statement, posted on his Facebook page.

The video overshadowed the publication of excerpts of Clinton's closed-door paid speeches that were made public on Friday by a hacker who claimed to have obtained them from the email account of John Podesta, the chairman of the Democrat's campaign. In the speeches, Clinton advocates for more open borders and trade, a position she abandoned during the primary because it was politically untenable to Democratic progressives. Likewise, Trump has repeatedly criticized her for past support of free trade.

The video landed just ahead of the second presidential debate on Sunday night, which had been seen as critical for Trump to try to rebound from a dip in some opinion polls after a rocky performance in the first debate.

COMMENTS CONDEMNED

Trump's comments aired in a near-constant loop on US news programs on Friday.

"I did try and fuck her. She was married," Trump said about one woman, before discussing his attraction to others.

"I just start kissing them," he said. "And when you're a star they let you do it."

"Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything," Trump said.

The video opened deep divisions within the Republican Party about how to respond, with a stream of Republican leaders condemning the remarks and some withdrawing their support for Trump.

US Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who has been one of Clinton's fiercest critics, said he had retracted his endorsement of Trump, telling CNN he would not be able to look his 15-year-old daughter in the eye if he voted for Trump.

Martha Roby, a Republican member of Congress from the conservative state of Alabama, announced she would not be voting for Trump.

"Donald Trump's behavior makes him unacceptable as a candidate for president, and I won't vote for him," she said in a statement. "Hillary Clinton must not be president, but, with Trump leading the ticket, she will be."

Utah's Republican Governor Gary Herbert said on Twitter he would also no longer vote for Trump. "Tonight, millions of Republicans are facing a moment of truth," Herbert said.

Republican lawmaker Mike Coffman from Colorado told CBS that Trump should "step aside" and said "his defeat at this point seems almost certain."

Other prominent Republicans indicated they would stick with their support of Trump. Ralph Reed, head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council, both told news outlets they would continue to support Trump.

Conservatives point to the fact that the winner of the November election will get to appoint a Supreme Court justice as reason to stick with Trump despite the controversial video. Greg Mueller, a conservative Republican strategist, pointed to Clinton's views on abortion as a reason religious voters will stick with Trump.

"Nothing indefensible that Donald Trump said 20 years ago is going to change that," he said. "Plus, to many religious voters, Mrs. Clinton is the epitome of a corrupt politician."

Representative Jack Kingston, a Republican from Georgia, argued that Trump has changed in the decade since the video was filmed.

"I think 10 years ago he was a different man than he is today, I am very glad that he quickly apologized," Kingston said.

Trump, known for his unconventional and controversial speaking style, has made a series of gaffes in his campaign but the graphic nature of the clip would hurt his standing among women, independents, and wavering Republicans, said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

"We've never seen something like this Trump clip in a modern presidential campaign," Yepsen said, calling the incident "sad for the American political system" and for Trump's supporters.

Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said "this feels like it is quickly becoming a political 'game over'" for Trump.

"Unless voters don't care about these issues or believe that this is simply political dirty tricks by releasing the videos now, Trump is going to have to pull a rabbit out of his hat in order to turn things around," Bonjean said.

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Trump apologizes for his crude remarks in 2005 video

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump apologized early Saturday for vulgar language he used about groping and kissing women in a 2005 video whose release has rocked his campaign.

"I've said and done things I regret," he said. "Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize."

Trump offered the remarks -- believed to be the first full public apology that he has made in the duration of a campaign laced with insults and rhetoric -- in a filmed statement hours after The Washington Post released a shocking video of Trump offensively bragging about grabbing women and pursuing sex with them with impunity.

"I've never said I'm a perfect person nor pretended to be someone I'm not," Trump said.

"I pledge to be a better man tomorrow."

But the provocative billionaire quickly and defiantly pivoted from his own crisis to attack the husband of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, saying former president Bill Clinton "abused" women.

"I've said some foolish things, but there's a big difference between the words and actions of other people," he said.

"Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, and shamed his victims.

"We'll discuss this in the coming days," Trump said. "See you at the debate on Sunday."

Trump's crisis comes at a precarious moment for his campaign. He squares off against Clinton for the second time on Sunday, in St. Louis, trailing the Democratic nominee in the polls, and with Clinton enjoying a dramatic lead over Trump with women voters.

In the 2005 video, Trump is heard using predatory language as he describes hitting on a married woman and grabbing women's crotches.

"When you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything," he says.

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Republican Asia experts say Trump presidency would be 'ruinous'

WASHINGTON - U.S. Asia experts who served in past Republican administrations said on Monday they would back Hillary Clinton in the presidential race as a Donald Trump presidency would lead to ''ruinous marginalization'' for the United States in the region.

In an open letter, the eight former senior officials said that with global strategic competition growing, including from China, it was "absolutely the wrong time to elect an unstable, ill-prepared amateur with no vision or foresight to meet the manifold challenges of the 21st century."

They said the Republican nominee offered "only bluster or preposterous panaceas" for Asia that would "wreck our country's credibility, economy, and leadership in very short order."

The signatories to the letter included Michael Green, who served as President George W. Bush's top Asia adviser at the White House, James Clad, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, and Patrick Cronin, a former senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Should Trump get the chance to put his "nostrums" into practice, Asian countries would be forced to shift towards states challenging the United States, most notably China, and some might seek security through nuclear weapons, the former officials said.

"In short, if the Trump brand ... becomes America's brand, we can expect ruinous marginalization in Asia and unwanted compliance with rules which the Chinese and other challengers set," they said.

Their letter was the latest repudiation of Trump's candidacy by Republican national security specialists.

Last week, 50 former Republican national security officials, including a former CIA director, called Trump unqualified to lead and said he would be "the most reckless president in American history."

Trump responded to that statement by deriding the signatories as members of "the failed Washington elite" who "deserve the blame for making the world such a dangerous place."

Trump has caused alarm in Asia and beyond by saying he would consider letting Japan and South Korea build their own nuclear weapons, rather than have them relying on the United States for protection against North Korea and China.

While making U.S. allies anxious, Trump has also irritated Beijing with his comments, such as by comparing the U.S. trade deficit with China to rape. One Chinese state newspaper equated him to Hitler.

At the same time, Beijing also sees Trump as a businessmen with whom it could probably negotiate and may also hope he would be less tough on human rights than Clinton.

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Donald Trump says immigrants pose hidden threat

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump launched new attacks on immigrants Thursday, telling supporters that Somalis and other refugees from "terrorist nations" should be barred entry to the United States.

"We are letting people come in from terrorist nations that shouldn't be allowed because you can't vet them," Trump, who has built his campaign around an anti-immigration platform, said at a rally in Portland, Maine.

"You have no idea who they are. This could be the great Trojan horse of all time," he said, reprising a warning that terrorists including members of the Islamic State extremist group will sneak into the United States as refugees.

"This is a practice that has to stop."

He pointed to the Somali immigrant population as an example of the "thousands" of refugees who have flooded into Maine and other US states and caused problems.

Trump said efforts to resettle Somali refugees -- many of them in Minnesota -- were "having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both stressing the state's... safety net and creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamist terror groups."

He then listed several immigrants, mostly from Muslim majority countries -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, Uzbekistan and Yemen -- who were arrested for conducting or threatening to carry out violent attacks, teaching bomb-making to recruits, and otherwise supporting terror groups.

"We're dealing with animals," he seethed.

Trump caused an uproar last December when he called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the United States, and he has harangued his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for seeking to allow many times more refugees into the country than President Barack Obama has.

"Hillary Clinton wants to have them come in by the hundreds of thousands," Trump warned Thursday, to a chorus of boos.

"You're going to have problems like you've never seen."

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Donald Trump attacks US media over donation money

Donald Trump stepped up his assault on the US media Tuesday, branding the political press "dishonest," calling one journalist "a sleaze" and promising more such attacks if elected US president.

The former reality TV star, prolific on Twitter with two million more followers than Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, has dominated coverage of the 2016 presidential cycle like no other by calling personally into television shows and frequently holding court at press conferences broadcast live nationwide.

The New York tycoon, who was dismissed as a joke when he launched his campaign, annihilated 16 rivals in the race to sew up the Republican nomination and is trailing Clinton by just a few percentage points in recent polls.

But on Tuesday, he laid into the press at Trump Tower in New York for questioning his claim to have raised $6 million for veteran charities on one night in Iowa last January after skipping a Fox News Republican debate.

The presumptive Republican nominee announced that he had given $5.6 million, reading out the names of more than 40 charities who received funds, including $1 million he donated personally to the Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation.

Trump attacked the media for appearing intent on finding fault rather than gushing over his apparent generosity, and said he expected additional donations to tip the figure over $6 million.

"The press should be ashamed," he hectored. "I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job."

He addressed a male CNN political journalist as a "real beauty" and pointed to Tom Llamas, who covers the Republican race for ABC News, saying: "You're a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well."

"Should be an interesting week," Llamas tweeted in response.

The presumptive Republican nominee also called Bill Kristol, editor of neoconservative magazine "The Weekly Standard" and fierce critic "a loser."

- A problem in November? -

When asked if this is what it would be like covering a Trump White House, the candidate fired back: "Yeah, it is," having batted aside any suggestion that he needed a thicker skin to become commander-in-chief.

"I'm going to continue to attack the press," said the 69-year-old father of five. "I find the political press to be unbelievably dishonest."

Al Baldasaro, a retired Marine and Republican in New Hampshire's state house of representatives, leapt to Trump's defense dressed in a Trump campaign hat.

"I think the liberal media -- and I have been dealing with you a long time -- need to get your head out of your butt, focus on the real issues," he said.

But outside Trump Tower, former military personnel from the group "VetsVsHate," which campaigns against anti-Muslim bigotry, said the Republican candidate must never become president.

"I am opposed to everything Donald Trump stands for," said Jake Maier, a Marine Corp veteran from New Jersey who said he would be voting for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders in his state primary next week.

"We will not let Donald Trump use veterans as props for his agenda for hate and fear," Maier told AFP.

Trump has routinely attacked reporters on Twitter he considers biased, most notably Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, until they reconciled with a face-to-face interview, broadcast earlier this month.

In March, The New York Times reported that Trump had earned close to $2 billion worth of media attention in the form of news and commentary about his campaign, nearly three times that of Clinton.

Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College in New York, said Trump's attacks on the media had served him well in the Republican primary but warned they could backfire in a general election.

"Trump has really gotten a lot of traction out of calling out the media. His supporters really do not like the media," she said.

But stepping up his attacks may also see independents or moderates increasingly question his temperament to be president.

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Obama slams Trump: 'Ignorance is not a virtue'

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Sunday criticized the populist campaign of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, decrying "anti-intellectualism" and noting that "ignorance is not a virtue."

Obama did not specifically name the brash New York real estate developer during his remarks at a university graduation ceremony in New Jersey, but it was clear he was referring to the candidate who is running on a slogan of "Make America Great Again!"

The Democrat told students not to pine for an American golden age of years past, saying, "The good old days were not all that good," as he pointed out problems with racial discrimination, poverty and lack of equality for women.

"The world is more interconnected than ever before and it is becoming more connected every day. Building walls won't change things," Obama said, an apparent jab at Trump's calls for a wall along the US-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants out.

Obama noted that no wall could stop outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola and Zika, or help the United States remain competitive in a time of globalization.

"Suggesting that we can build an endless wall along our borders and blame our challenges on immigrants, that does not just run counter to our history as the world melting pot," Obama said.

"It contradicts the evidence that our growth and our innovation and our dynamism has always been spurred by our ability to attract strivers from every corner of the globe."

The US president also denounced politicians who hold themselves up as examples of straight-talkers but shun political correctness.

"In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It's not cool to not know what you're talking about," he said. "That's not challenging political correctness. That's just not knowing what you're talking about."

Obama was speaking to students at Rutgers University, about one hour from New York. He wore a red and black gown and received an honorary degree from the school.

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Trump rolls unrivaled, Sanders takes West Virginia

WASHINGTON - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump cruised to victory in two more states Tuesday, while Bernie Sanders beat rival Democrat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia to bolster his argument for remaining in the race.

The substantial wins in West Virginia and Nebraska according to early results put Trump ever closer to clinching the 1,237 delegates he needs to be declared the party's nominee at its convention in July.

"Thank you West Virginia!" and "Thank you Nebraska!" Trump said in a pair of tweets.

Now the sole Republican candidate in the contest after his remaining rivals dropped out last week, Trump is transitioning from the fierce primary battles with the likes of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to a general election showdown with Clinton, even amid deep Republican discord about the celebrity billionaire.

He has narrowed his picks for running mate, telling Fox News he is considering five vice president options.

"I think they are excellent," he added. "I'll announce whoever it will be at the convention" in Cleveland, Ohio, Trump said.

With Republican concern about their nominee sizzling, a Quinnipiac University poll out Tuesday showed Trump closing in on Clinton's lead in two major battleground states -- Florida and Pennsylvania -- and overtaking her in swing state Ohio.

No candidate has won the presidential election without taking at least two of those three states.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seized on the polls as a sign that Trump will mount a strong challenge against Clinton.

"It's a long time 'til November, but the early indications are that our nominee is likely to be very competitive," McConnell told reporters.

UNYIELDING SANDERS

Despite Clinton's overwhelming delegate lead, Sanders ensured the race would go on with his win in West Virginia, where he was ahead of Clinton by 11 percentage points with about a third of precincts reporting.

With eight contests remaining, "we think we have a good chance to win many of those states," Sanders told supporters Tuesday in San Francisco, according to CBS News.

"We hope we can win some of them with big majorities."

Quinnipiac's poll also found that Sanders, a democratic socialist who commands an enthusiastic following on the left, would do better against Trump than Clinton in all three states if he were the Democratic nominee.

The 74-year-old Vermont senator, who defeated Clinton in Indiana, has mounted an unyielding come-from-behind challenge that has exposed weaknesses in the former secretary of state's campaign.

Although almost certain to win the Democratic nomination -- she is only about 160 delegates short of that goal -- Clinton's ability to excite young and white working-class Democrats going into the general election has been put in doubt by Sanders's primary successes.

But she has used her campaign stops in Appalachia -- including an event in Kentucky, which holds its Democratic primary on May 17 -- as opportunities to win over blue-collar white voters.

"If I am so fortunate enough to be the nominee, I'm looking forward to debating Donald Trump come the fall," she said in Louisville.

"We can't be scapegoating and finger-pointing and blaming and demeaning and degrading and insulting our Americans."

In coal-mining West Virginia, Clinton shot herself in the foot in March by telling voters in neighboring Ohio she would slash mining jobs and put coal companies "out of business."

She later apologized and suggested her remarks were misunderstood, but in a state where livelihoods have hinged on coal for generations, many are unconvinced.

TRUMP CHALLENGES

While Clinton still has Sanders to worry about, Trump faces a rebellion within the Republican leadership over the insulting tone and shifting substance of his candidacy.

House Speaker Paul Ryan last week announced he was "not ready" to support Trump, a rare rebuke that put the power struggles within the Republican Party on very public display.

Ryan and other Republican congressional leaders were due to huddle with Trump Thursday in Washington, in highly anticipated meetings that could help gauge GOP support for the real estate tycoon.

McConnell said he expected "a cordial meeting to discuss the way forward."

It may be thorny. A defeated Cruz ruled out a third-party bid, but when pressed by reporters as he returned to the US Senate he declined to say whether he would endorse Trump.

Rubio said he would "support the Republican nominee" but would not offer an outright endorsement.

The Republican establishment is still reeling from Trump's hostile takeover of the party, aghast at positions he's taken on trade, foreign policy and taxes that fly in the face of conservative dictums.

But Trump has shown no sign of backing down, and some Republicans are looking to heal, embrace the nominee and turn to defeating Clinton in November.

"I think the party needs to come together," said Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com