donald trump, faced with a coast-to-coast rebellion and a political party in turmoil, pushed back sunday on republicans who abandoned his candidacy after a video surfaced of him lewdly bragging about forcing himself on women. confronted by a growing field of<u+00a0>gop candidates and officials repudiating their own presidential nominee , mr. trump sent a series of twitter messages denouncing those who turned their backs on him. <u+201c>so many self-righteous hypocrites,<u+201d> said mr. trump. <u+201c>watch their poll numbers<u+2014>and elections<u+2014>go down.<u+201d> he sniped at defectors in another tweet that cited his <u+201c>tremendous support (except for some republican <u+2018>leadership<u+2019>).<u+201d> and he re-tweeted messages from supporters including one that said <u+201c><u+2018>republican leadership<u+2019> should have only one job: help elect the nominee we voted for, donald j. trump.<u+201d> meantime, his campaign circulated talking points to supporters, urging them to use them to criticize gop deserters. <u+201c>they are more concerned with their political future than they are about the future of the country,<u+201d> the memo said. <u+201c>trump won the primary without the help of the insiders and he<u+2019>ll win the general without them, too.<u+201d> the release friday of a 2005<u+00a0>video of mr. trump making obscene and degrading comments about women has led to recriminations from all corners of the party, as the republican national committee and its candidates scrambled for ways to protect other gop candidates and avoid cataclysmic down-ballot losses. capital journal is wsj.com<u+2019>s home for election 2016 news. the speed and breadth of the abandonment of mr. trump<u+2019>s candidacy shocked some longtime party members. <u+201c>our party is in its deepest crisis since watergate in 1974,<u+201d> said ron nehring, former chairman of the california republican party, referring to the year when the resignation of then-president richard m. nixon led to a democratic landslide in midterm elections. republican national committee chairman reince priebus told party officials to redirect funds away from mr. trump to lower-office candidates, according to an official informed of the decision. in practical terms, the party will work to mobilize voters who support gop house and senate candidates regardless of their position on the presidential race, this person said. dozens of gop officials, including at least 11 new senators, have denounced mr. trump or rescinded their endorsement of him after the lewd remarks surfaced, bringing to 15 the total of republican senators who don<u+2019>t support his candidacy. it became increasingly clear sunday the issue wouldn<u+2019>t go away for those trying to carve their own path to re-election. sen. kelly ayotte of new hampshire, a republican facing a tough re-election bid, was one of the first on saturday to reverse her position and announce she wouldn<u+2019>t vote for mr. trump. on sunday, reporters grilled her on why the video led her to abandon him, while she stuck by him earlier when he said things she had found offensive. <u+201c>those tapes are fundamentally different; he<u+2019>s talking about assault,<u+201d> she said at a brief news conference. democrats characterized ms. ayotte<u+2019>s change of heart as rank political opportunism. <u+201c>there is no answer for what has changed now for ayotte besides the political winds,<u+201d> said meira bernstein, spokeswoman for the senator<u+2019>s democratic challenger, new hampshire gov. maggie hassan. mr. trump told the wall street journal<u+00a0>on saturday he won<u+2019>t quit the race , a vow former new york mayor rudolph giuliani, a confidant of mr. trump,<u+00a0>reiterated sunday. <u+201c>gosh almighty, he who hasn<u+2019>t sinned throw the first stone here,<u+201d> mr. giuliani said on cnn. <u+201c>the fact is that men at times talk like that. not all men, but men do.<u+201d> mr. giuliani said mr. trump had made <u+201c>a full and complete apology<u+201d> for his boastful remarks about pressing himself on women a decade ago, when he was 59 years old. today<u+2019>s 70-year-old candidate has changed his thinking significantly about women since then, mr. giuliani said. in the 2005 recording, mr. trump said: <u+201c>you know i<u+2019>m automatically attracted to beautiful women<u+2014>i just start kissing them. it<u+2019>s like a magnet. just kiss. i don<u+2019>t even wait.<u+2026> <u+201c>and when you<u+2019>re a star, they let you do it. you can do anything.<u+2026>grab them by the pussy,<u+201d> mr. trump added. he also referred to a married woman whom he said he tried to seduce: <u+201c>i moved on her and i failed. i<u+2019>ll admit it. i did try and f<u+2014>her.<u+2026> <u+201c>i moved on her like a bitch, but i couldn<u+2019>t get there,<u+201d> mr. trump said in the recording. democratic vice presidential candidate tim kaine said sunday on cnn that mr. trump<u+2019>s comments about women show a <u+201c>pattern of assaultive behavior.<u+201d> when 2008 republican nominee john mccain withdrew his endorsement of mr. trump on saturday, that left 1996 nominee bob dole as the only living gop presidential nominee backing mr. trump. in an interview, mr. dole said he still backs the party<u+2019>s nominee . <u+201c>it was 11 years ago. he shouldn<u+2019>t have said it, but there<u+2019>s nothing he can do about it except to do well in the debate,<u+201d> he said. polls taken last week before the release of the 2005 recording showed mr. trump trailing in two states crucial to his chances of winning the presidency. hillary clinton leads by 12 percentage points in pennsylvania and by 3 points in florida, according to a wall street journal/nbc news/marist poll. opinion polls across the country show a growing number of voters willing to back gop congressional candidates as well as mrs. clinton. in ohio, where republican sen. rob portman had endorsed mr. trump but declined to appear with him, the senator is leading his race by 15 percentage points in surveys, while the presidential battle there is basically tied. mr. portman on saturday called on mr. trump to quit the race, joining mr. mccain and ms. ayotte. <u+201c>while i continue to respect those who still support donald trump, i can no longer support him,<u+201d> he said in a statement. <u+201c>i continue to believe our country cannot afford a hillary clinton presidency. i will be voting for mike pence for president,<u+201d> he said, referring to mr. trump<u+2019>s running mate. mr. trump<u+2019>s latest imbroglio is also widening a chasm between the party<u+2019>s old guard and the legions of voters drawn to his antiestablishment message. those divisions surfaced on saturday when house speaker paul ryan appeared at a rally in his wisconsin district after disinviting mr. trump from the event and denouncing his crude comments on the video. mr. ryan<u+2019>s own welcome from the crowd was mixed with boos and heckles from trump backers. the one figure who might help keep republicans unified is the democratic nominee. though mrs. clinton<u+2019>s approval ratings have hovered slightly above mr. trump<u+2019>s, she is one of the least popular presidential nominees in modern history. public disclosure of her emails when she was secretary of state and leaked correspondence from campaign and party officials have provided a steady stream of negative stories that show no signs of slowing. just as reports of mr. trump<u+2019>s lewd conversation surfaced friday, the organization wikileaks released what it claimed to be excerpts from paid speeches that show mrs. clinton privately taking a more favorable position toward free trade and the financial industry than she has done publicly. <u+201c>she<u+2019>s admitted she<u+2019>s a globalist who<u+2019>s going to kill jobs, and if donald trump can pivot to these substantial issues he will succeed. those things aren<u+2019>t going away,<u+201d> said new york republican party chairman ed cox. write to janet hook at janet.hook@wsj.com , beth reinhard at beth.reinhard@wsj.com and reid j. epstein at reid.epstein@wsj.com
abandoned by gop leaders after his lewd comments, trump pushes back - wsj
janet hook reid j. epstein