Donald Trump Defiant as Top Republicans Flee Candidacy

by Ali Vitali and Benjy Sarlin

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A defiant Donald Trump pledged to finish out the race on Saturday as a stampede of Republican politicians denounced his behavior toward women and a number openly called on him to quit.

"I'd never withdraw," Trump told The Washington Post. "I've never withdrawn in my life."

Trump also told The Wall Street Journalthere is "zero chance I'll quit."

"The support I'm getting is unbelievable, because Hillary Clinton is a horribly flawed candidate," he added.

Trump has weathered plenty of storms in the past, but the severity of the response from his own party over and the timing, just 30 days before the election and one day before the second presidential debate, left his campaign fighting for its life on Saturday morning.

Even Trump's own running mate, who dutifully represented Trump at last week's vice presidential debate, distanced himself from the remarks.

"As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump in the eleven-year-old video released yesterday," Pence said. "I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. I am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologized to the American people. We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity he has to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation tomorrow night."

Notably, the statement did not reaffirm Pence's support for the nominee or include any of the counterattacks on Clinton that Trump emphasized in his own response.

Melania Trump, the nominee's wife, issued a rare statement decrying her own husband's behavior in stark terms but vouching for his broader character.

"The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me," she said. "This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world."

Trump's taped apology just after midnight on Friday night, which promised a new war on Bill Clinton's sex scandals, did little to stem the bleeding, which appeared to worsen as multiple prominent Republicans and conservatives withdrew their endorsements.

"Donald Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should be our nominee effective immediately," Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the third-ranking member of the Senate GOP leadership, tweeted.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the 2008 GOP nominee who Trump famously said was "not a war hero" because he was captured in Vietnam, withdrew his support on Saturday in a detailed statement.

In addition to excoriating Trump's "boasts about sexual assaults," McCain also cited his recent claim that the "Central Park Five" were guilty of a notorious 1989 rape despite DNA evidence exonerating them.

He and his wife, he said, "will write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be President."

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had not weighed in on the election, also came off the fence to denounce Trump.

"Enough!" she wrote on Facebook. "Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw."

Among those who dropped their support for Trump on Saturday morning alone: Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL), and radio host Hugh Hewitt, who had been a prominent Trump supporter. In the case of Roby, Crapo, and Hewitt, they called on Trump to drop out. Moore Capito said Trump should "reexamine his candidacy." Ayotte said she would write in Pence on her ballot.