TRUMP: 'I WILL NEVER DROP OUT'
(Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a town hall, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016, in Sandown, N.H.AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Despite mounting calls for him to leave the race, many of which are coming from his own party, Donald Trump defiantly insisted on Saturday that he would never drop out of the election.
The Republican presidential nominee is facing an uproar over vulgar comments he made in 2005 that surfaced in a recording released Friday.
He tweeted Saturday afternoon: "The media and establishment want me out of the race so badly — I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN! #MAGA."
Late Saturday afternoon, Trump appeared briefly outside of Trump Tower and waved to supporters before returning inside the building.
Trump also told several news outlets Saturday that he wouldn't drop out.
"I'd never withdraw," Trump told Washington Post political reporter Robert Costa. "I've never withdrawn in my life. No, I'm not quitting this race. I have tremendous support."
Despite growing calls from prominent Republicans asking Trump to leave the race, Trump insists that he's also hearing people tell him to stay in.
"People are calling and saying, 'Don't even think about doing anything else but running,'" he told Costa. "You have to see what's going on. The real story is that people have no idea the support. I don't know how that's going to boil down but people have no idea the support."
Trump's defiance came amid an avalanche of Republicans withdrawing their support for their party's presidential nominee in unprecedented fashion just more than a month ahead of the November 8 election. Many of those same Republican officials and lawmakers also called on Trump to step aside.
In the 2005 clip that surfaced Friday, Trump was heard saying he could "grab" women "by the p---y" because "when you're a star they let you do it." He also discussed trying to sleep with a married woman and failing.
Trump issued an apology early Saturday morning.
"Everyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am," he said in a pre-recorded video posted to his Facebook account.
"I've never said I'm a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone I'm not. I've said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them," he continued. "I said it. I was wrong. And I apologize."
Trump also talked to The Wall Street Journal and said he was considering delivering a speech Saturday night about the controversy. But he also told the newspaper he expects the controversy to blow over.
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