WASHINGTON _ Donald Trump strived to save his presidential candidacy on Saturday as a wave of Republicans began calling for him to step aside, fearful his bragging about sexual assaults will ruin not only his own campaign but poison those of other Republicans as well.
Trump retreated to his tower in New York as several members of his party urged him to step down as their nominee, including a member of the party leadership in the Senate. Others withdrew their endorsements. Almost none spoke up in his defense.
Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, canceled an appearance in Wisconsin, where he was supposed to be the last-minute stand-in for Trump when Trump was disinvited by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R. Wis.
Pence issued a short statement and suggested he's waiting _ like much of the party _ to see how Trump handles himself at the second presidential debate Sunday night.
"We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity he has to show what is in his heart," Pence said.
Trump worked to stop any speculation that he might withdraw. He called newspapers to insist that he will remain in the race, blamed the "media and establishment" for wanting him out of the race, and posted on Twitter that he'd never drop out.
Few Republicans believe that with votes already cast in some states, Trump could be replaced on the ticket at this late date. But they worried that Trump may have finally gone too far and that the party's embrace of him may have irreparably harmed its chances with voters, especially women.
Trump is now under pressure at Sunday's debate at Washington University in St. Louis. Not only must he recover from an uneven performance at his first debate with Hillary Clinton, he also must show enough contrition and self-control that more nervous Republicans won't abandon him.
That appeared to be an uphill climb on Saturday: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who had supported Trump, called for him to "re-examine his candidacy." She said that as a woman, mother and grandmother, she was offended by Trump's remarks.
"There is no excuse for the disgusting and demeaning language," Capito said.
Other Republicans, some in tough re-election battles, sought to distance themselves as well.
"I'm a mom and an American first and I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,"said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, who already this week backtracked on her remarks at a debate that she would consider Trump a "role model" for her children.
She said Saturday she'd write in Pence for president.
Republicans who had been critical of Trump for months and had only reluctantly supported him began to distance themselves from Trump late Friday in the hours after a 2005 recording of Trump trash talking began to circulate.
But Republicans running for the exits accelerated Saturday with even a member of Senate leadership, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, asking for Trump to leave the race.
The party's top leaders were more wary, issuing stern reprimands but stopping well short of calling for a change at the top.
Most were waiting to see how Trump performs in Sunday's debate, and whether his poll numbers plunge so deep he can't recover. The key players are House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Ryan was a reluctant supporter of Trump, waiting weeks after the nomination was secure to back him, and he was the first prominent Republican Friday to distance himself from the nominee. He disinvited Trump from a campaign event in Wisconsin, but hasn't gone as far as to say he wants him off the ticket. Pence was to go in Trump's place, but he canceled.
McConnell is in a more delicate spot, considering carefully whether Trump is a liability or an asset. Seven Republicans are seeking to protect Senate seats in states President Barack Obama carried in 2012, and most are seen as vulnerable.
McConnell is known as a shrewd politician who does not make rash moves. If he disavows Trump publicly, it would be likely to start a political avalanche.
Republicans now control the Senate with 54 seats to 44 seats for Democrats and two independents. Democrats need a net gain of four seats if Clinton wins and five seats if Trump wins to gain control of the chamber. Of the 34 Senate seats up for election this year, 24 are held by Republicans.
In the House, Republican hold 246 seats to the Democrats' 186. Democrats need to pick up over 30 seats to win control of the chamber, something that analysts consider improbable.
The audio of Trump talking crudely about women is "certainly is not going to help him with college-educated women, women in the Philadelphia suburbs, in Northern Virginia, or with millennial women on college campuses," said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin & Marshall College poll in Pennsylvania.
"It's not helpful, to put it mildly," Madonna said. "It's just so graphic, the profanity. You heard the words."
And Trump's troubles could spill over to Senate and House races.
"What the Republicans are going to have to do is redouble their down ballot efforts," Madonna said. "Now it's going to be 'Forget the top of the ticket.' "
Democrats have not been entirely successful in tying Trump to down-ballot candidates, but the remarks could give them a better opening, said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
She suggested that Trump can hardly do worse with women voters than he is already doing, but that the gap may widen with college-educated white men.
Regardless, the fracas threatened to further divide Trump's base and the Republican Party establishment. Furious Trump supporters pointed to what they saw as a double standard in coverage of Trump's remarks: alleging that the media turned a blind eye to President Bill Clinton's sexual misdeeds and what they saw as Hillary Clinton's aggressive efforts to help him cover them up.
Many conservatives will continue to back Trump because they do not have a choice and Trump's "grossly inappropriate language" in a private conversation doesn't change the situation, said former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer.
Clinton, he said, "is mired in corruption and has put U.S. secrets at risk."
Trump's comments were "indefensible," said Steve Scheffler, an Iowa Republican committeeman and president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. But he still intends to vote for Trump.
"If Hillary Clinton is elected, the Supreme Court will be lost in my lifetime and the generation after," Scheffler said. "If Donald Trump remains the nominee, I will still vote for him _ not because of what he's done _ but because I fear a presidency of hers."
