From TimAlberta: The exclusive story of how Trump survived the Access Hollywood tape
One by one, they had trickled out of the conference room on the 25th floor of Trump Tower. It was Friday, October 7, 2016, two days before the second presidential debate, and the Republican nominee’s brain trust had spent the morning running a carefully simulated rehearsal session. New Jersey Gov.
“Jared, what are you talking about?” Priebus said, burying his head in his hands. “This is as bad as it gets.”Trump, talking to no one in particular, repeated himself. “This doesn’t sound like me.” Farenthold’s story told of an exclusively obtained audio recording of Trump, 11 years earlier and newly married, boasting of his sexual exploits to television host Billy Bush. The two were riding together on a bus, preparing to shoot a segment for the NBC show, when Trump recalled how he’d once tried to sleep with Bush’s co-host, Nancy O’Dell.
The party chairman called Ryan back with Trump’s reaction. “You’re gonna have to publicly disinvite him, Paul.” Reconnecting by phone later that night, Ryan demanded that the national party take action to excommunicate Trump. “This is fatal,” he told Priebus. “How can you get him out of the race?” Trump’s campaign was in scramble mode. He and Clinton were scheduled to debate Sunday night in St. Louis. Convinced that a thorough, videotaped apology was their only chance to survive the weekend, his senior aides set about staging the production. Some tinkered with the text, debating how much emphasis to place on the Clintons’ past scandals involving women.
Not for a moment would Trump consider quitting the race. He was unmoved by the rebukes of the Republican lawmakers who were piling on with excoriating statements; most of them, he scoffed, were the same people who had opposed his candidacy from its inception. Trump cackled as one of his aides read aloud the rolling list of disavowals from the likes of Ryan and Mitt Romney. He could not have cared less what they had to say.
While the party chairman saw no path to removing Trump, he wasn’t ruling out the possibility of Trump stepping aside. Having gotten the sense from Pence’s advisers that the Indiana governor would be willing to take over if Trump quit, Priebus talked into the wee hours Friday night with trusted allies—Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as top staffers and party lawyers—discussing the logistical hurdles to replacing a nominee one month before Election Day.
Nobody said a word. Trump’s many loyalists who had gathered—his children, Hicks, Bannon, Conway, Christie, Bossie, Giuliani—were shocked by the blunt assessment. Yet none was eager to push back on it. When Trump went around the room, asking what people thought his chances were, he heard a lot of throat-clearing. Even Bannon, who made it a habit of always saying “100 percent” whenever Trump asked the question, dodged it this time.
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