The chair of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus and several other GOP lawmakers blasted Donald Trump’s past explicit remarks about women that surfaced Friday.
{mosads}”No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever,” Priebus said in a statement.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump would no longer be attending a planned joint event for Saturday afternoon in Wisconsin, saying in a statement: “I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests.”
Other GOP lawmakers joined them in their condemnation of Trump’s statements.
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) called on Trump to drop out of the race, calling him “a malignant clown” that is “unfit to be president of the United States.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) reportedly said that Trump’s “comments are inappropriate and completely unacceptable,” while Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said “America deserves better.”
And Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said Trump’s comments are “totally inappropriate and offensive.”
The highest ranking GOP woman in the House, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) also reacted to the audio by stating that comments of that nature have “no place in public or private conversations.”
In the leaked audio reported first by The Washington Post, Trump is recorded having a lewd conversation about an unidentified woman, and boasting about sexual perks that come with his celebrity status.
“I did try and f–k her. She was married,” the Republican nominee told former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush in the audio clip.
“I moved on her like a b—h, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married,” Trump continued, adding that “when you’re a star,” women let you do “anything.”
“Grab them by the p—y,” he said.
Trump later apologized for the “locker room banter” in the audio, but said that the former President Bill Clinton “has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close.”
“I apologize if anyone was offended,” he added.