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ST. LOUIS — Early on in Sunday’s debate, a fly drifted into the frame and came to rest, just for a moment, at the base of Hillary Clinton’s left eyebrow.

She blinked, flicked her head, and kept talking.

This was the Democratic nominee's posture for more than an hour and a half here at Washington University as Donald Trump put on one of the more hostile performances of this year's divisive presidential race. He called his opponent the "devil," said she had "tremendous hate in her heart." He vowed to put her in prison, raised her husband's infidelities, and brought women who alleged Bill Clinton sexually abused them into the debate hall. He paced the stage as she spoke. He lied about his opposition to the war in Iraq and asserted that had he been president, the late Captain Humayun Khan would still be alive.

When the debate was halfway through, one of Clinton's aides back in Brooklyn snapped. "hey, @realDonaldTrump — regarding your claim that Captain Khan would be alive if you were president," tweeted spokesperson Jesse Lehrich.

"go fuck yourself."

The harsh tweet, which Lehrich later apologized for, amounted to what Clinton managed to largely avoid in the second presidential debate, a town hall–style forum that finally brought forth some of the personal attacks Trump has vowed to make for weeks.

The debate followed a tumultuous weekend of shifting political ground. After old footage emerged of Trump saying, for instance, that he could “grab” women “by the pussy,” Republican officials abandoned their party’s nominee in large numbers. And on Sunday, Trump stunned most people in politics, appearing with women who had alleged that Clinton’s husband had sexually abused them.

“If you look at Bill Clinton — far worse. Mine are words, and his was action. His was what he's done to women. There's never been anybody in the history politics in this nation that's been so abusive to women,” Trump said, answering a question about the bombshell 11-year-old raw footage surfaced Friday by the Washington Post.

“Bill Clinton was abusive to women.”

Trump went on to accuse his opponent of “viciously” taking down those women. Three of them — Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick, who alleges that Bill Clinton raped her in the late 1970s — were seated inside the debate hall at the Republican nominee's invitation.

As Trump invoked their stories — “I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth” — Clinton held a muted gaze on her opponent.

After the first debate, Trump and his supporters boasted that he had restrained himself in not attacking Clinton over Monica Lewinsky, which turned into days of coverage about whether this time, Trump really would revisit the topic. Ahead of the second match-up, Clinton and a team of senior advisers prepared for an uglier and more personal debate.

The response she offered Sunday did not touch on the substance of Trump's claims. "He gets to run his campaign any way he chooses," she began. "He gets to decide what he wants to talk about — instead of answering people's questions."

Bill Clinton's extramarital activity and personal history has made for tense moments on the trail for some 17 months now, partly as a reflection of the changing politics of sexual harassment and assault allegations. But Trump put the former president at the center of his presidential campaign early in the race, and on occasion, protesters and voters in the crowd have confronted the former first lady in unexpected turns at events with questions (or jeers) about the claims made by Jones, Broaddrick, and Willey.

Often, Clinton is the least uncomfortable person in the room, appearing unfazed as she delivers a straightforward answer, moving on as if the moment never happened. Longtime aides refer often to Clinton’s ability to “compartmentalize” in real time.

After the debate, Clinton’s aides dismissed the women’s presence as a campaign tactic meant to upend their candidate’s performance.

“The stunt didn’t work,” said campaign manager Robby Mook, speaking to reporters aboard Clinton’s “Stronger Together” campaign plane on the way back east.

“Hillary just plowed forward.”

Pool / Getty Images

ST. LOUIS — Donald Trump started Sunday's debate looking like he might die: sniffling, reeling, lurking, obviously rattled by Hillary Clinton's early poise.

But when the night ended, Trump was still standing — and Republican strategists across the party grudgingly acknowledged that, for better or worse, it would be his name on the ballot come November.

The debate came at a moment when Trump's candidacy was spiraling into crisis after the release of an 11-year-old video in which he is heard boasting about his habit of forcibly groping women. In the 48 hours since the video was published, dozens of high-profile Republicans have defected, with many calling on Trump to drop out of the race. Frenzied news reports suggested the Republican National Committee might pull its funding, that Trump's campaign manager might quit, that his running mate might bolt.

For a fleeting period this weekend, it looked as if the GOP's presidential nominee could possibly be forced out of the race a month before Election Day.

While Trump's discursive, belligerent debate performance was far from the miraculous comeback his allies were praying for, Republicans said Sunday night it was non-catastrophic enough to stabilize the party and save him from outright exile — at least for now.

"Trump stopped the bleeding with a strong second half of the debate, but he lost too many pints of it over the weekend," said Sarah Isgur-Flores, who served as Carly Fiorina's deputy campaign manager. "He needed to change the map tonight and he didn't."

"The GOP exodus won't decide this race, whether it continues or slows down," said Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary who supports Trump. "Endorsements, or the reversal of them, is not what this race is about. If Trump can make this race about policy and the direction of the country, he could win. If it's about his character, he probably won't."

A senior Democratic strategist noted that Trump's performance was good enough that "he's not going away."

Republican strategist Tim Miller, one of the most outspoken gadflies in the #NeverTrump movement, spent the debate savaging the nominee's performance on Twitter — but concluded in the end that it would likely "keep GOPers from jumping ship."

Pence, meanwhile, quieted speculation that he might remove himself from the ticket with a tweet sent shortly after the debate ended.

With a vast archive of unaired Trump footage sitting somewhere in a sealed NBC vault, it remains possible that more leaks are coming, though. And in the meantime, Democrats will likely be rooting for Trump to fend off his Republican adversaries and retain his spot atop the ticket.

Indeed, Clinton's biggest victory of the night may have been keeping her badly damaged opponent in the race.

BuzzFeed News reporters Ben Smith, Ruby Cramer, Adrian Carrasquillo, Darren Sands, Rosie Gray, and McKay Coppins were at Washington University in St. Louis; Ema O’Connor and Dominic Holden reported from New York; Emma Loop reported from Washington, DC; and Claudia Koerner reported from Los Angeles.

Pool / Getty Images

• OK AMERICA! Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton held the most surreal US presidential debate in modern history (and probably ever) Sunday night. Settle in, folks, we're gonna unpack this thing for you. 💁🏾
• The debate was happening amid utter upheaval in the Trump campaign: 2005 hot mic comments, revealed Friday, suggested Trump sexually assaulted women. Many Republicans pulled their support for him.
• So first, a digest of the night: Trump denied he has ever sexually assaulted a woman; Hillary defended her speeches to big banks by citing...Abraham Lincoln; Trump literally vowed to lock Clinton up if he became president; Trump straight-up dissed his running mate, Mike Pence; and Trump denied referencing a "sex tape" by one of his former Miss Universe contestants, which, well, is a lie.
• The takeaways: Clinton was unfazed in the face of aggressive personal attacks. And Trump did well enough to keep himself afloat.
• The madness began before the debate even kicked off: Trump held a surprise appearance with several women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual abuse in the past. The move caught everyone — even Republican Party officials — off guard. Then the accusers sat in the crowd.
• The night began with Trump being asked if he's ever sexually assaulted a woman as described in the 2005 comments — he denied it, and dismissed the whole thing as "locker room" talk.
• Trump then attacked the Clintons, saying “there’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women" about Bill and that Hillary “attacked” the accusers.
• Trump, incredibly, said he would appoint a prosecutor to look into Clinton if he became president. When Clinton said she was glad he wasn't in charge of national law enforcement, Trump responded, "because you'd be in jail."
• And, um, Trump kept creepily hovering behind Clinton during the debate. People were freaked out.
• And that's not the half of it — at the end everyone just related to this dude.
• Who do you think won the debate? Take our poll.

This thing was 👀 right from the get-go, when Bill Clinton and Melania Trump had the most awkward/intense handshake. Watch it here:

View Video ›

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Then the candidates came out and did not shake hands.

View Video ›

Remember: No one had said a word by this point.

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View Entire List ›

ST. LOUIS — Donald Trump faced a choice on Sunday.

Ahead of one of the highest-stakes debate situations ever after tape emerged showing Trump making grossly sexist remarks that are so damaging that many top Republicans have abandoned him, Trump could have tried to salvage his candidacy by trying to be somewhat conciliatory, pivoting to his signature policy proposals, and avoiding getting into the mud while profusely apologizing for the content of the tape — something many Republicans have called on him to do.

He chose a different path. On Sunday night, Trump signaled that his objective now is to fight to the end as the champion of the populist nationalist movement he has spearheaded and which propelled him to the Republican nomination. Trump’s revanchist positioning is a sign he’s retreated to pleasing the hard core of his base, despite the fact that they cannot deliver him the White House; a performance like this won’t bring on board the voters Trump must persuade in order to win.

Trump began the night by holding a livestreamed meeting with several of Bill Clinton’s accusers, signaling that he would bring up a subject that many Republicans have urged him not to. He accused Clinton’s campaign of starting birtherism, bringing up Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal twice — a reference unlikely to resonate with many people beyond loyal readers of Breitbart and viewers of Fox News. Trump told Clinton she had “hate in her heart.” He threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and even jail her after the election.

Just before the debate began, the homepage of Breitbart News, the conservative website that has worked in tandem with the campaign and from which Trump hired his campaign CEO Steve Bannon, displayed a huge Trump campaign ad:

“IT’S US AGAINST THE WORLD.”

What was even more startling was the extent to which the Republican National Committee, just a day after beginning to run away from him full-tilt, appeared to embrace Trump. RNC chairman Reince Priebus flew with Trump to St. Louis. During the debate, RNC chief strategist and communications director Sean Spicer tweeted a link to a Trump campaign press release sent out during the debate about how Clinton dealt with her husband’s accusers, referring to the “details of @HillaryClinton’s horrible mistreatment of women.” The tweet indicated early on in the debate that the RNC had lent its approval to Trump’s strategy. (Even the RNC, however, seemed to distance itself from Trump’s inviting Bill Clinton’s accusers to St. Louis; Spicer told reporters that the party had not been aware of Trump’s plans to invite the women. The Commission on Presidential Debates, meanwhile, tabled at the last minute a plan to have the women Trump invited confront Bill Clinton inside the debate hall, the Washington Post reported on Sunday night.)

The Clinton side has seized on Trump’s refusal to soften his messaging for the general election, even in general election debates. Trump was speaking to his “hardcore fringe supporters,” said Clinton communications director Brian Fallon in the spin room after the debate.

And part of Trump’s retrenchment to his base — and the intra-party, establishment vs. anti-establishment battles on which it thrives — means attacking other Republicans. Over the weekend, he tweeted critically several times of the Republicans who have abandoned him, and even retweeted an account referring to them as traitors. It’s hard to overstate how unusual this is for a major party nominee to do at all, not least a month before the election.

On Sunday night, Trump surrogates were mostly focused on Clinton.

“That’s not what we’re thinking about, we’re thinking about beating Hillary Clinton right now,” Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller told reporters on Sunday night when asked if the Trump campaign wants consequences for Republicans who have rescinded their support for the nominee.

“That’s up to Speaker Ryan,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters when asked if Trump’s performance had been enough to keep Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan on board.

Instead, on Sunday night, Trump’s Facebook page posted an image emblematic of where his campaign is now. It’s a meme of him standing at a lectern, with the words “She would be in jail” right next to his face.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Paul Ryan says he can't and won't defend Donald Trump, and that House Republicans can do what's best for them in the remaining weeks of the election.

Ryan spoke to House members on a conference call Monday morning following an intense political weekend, in which many Republicans abandoned their party's nominee. Ryan also said that he would not campaign for or defend Trump in the weeks before the election.

A source on the call said that Rep. Greg Walden — the chair of the House campaign arm — gave a dire warning about polling, and that things were trending negative for House Republicans. They implored members to continue contributing to the NRCC and pay their dues if they wanted to keep the House.

While Ryan initially "didn't say anything about the endorsement,” he later returned to the call to clarify that he was not unendorsing Trump. Several members pushed back on Ryan, furious with him and arguing that House Republicans should be supporting Trump and working to get a Republican in the White House. Several sources said one member charged that Republican leadership was acting "cowardly" though a Republican member on the call believed the comment was directed specifically at Ryan. A source on the call said those who expressed support for Trump were from deeply red states.

"The same people are always upset about everything," one member said.

Another source said Ryan told members that "the high principle here is to protect our majority so if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, she doesn't have a blank check from Congress."

Members were left shellshocked after leaked audio emerged of Trump saying that he grabbed women "by the pussy" and kissed them against their will. Trump’s remarks were almost universally condemned by Republicans, with multiple elected officials calling on him to drop out of the race. Ryan had said he was "sickened" by the remarks.

Trump’s debate performance Sunday night “probably did enough to stop the free-fall with Republicans but not enough to expand his coalition enough to win the presidency,” one Republican congressman explained.

Members worried about their conservative base will likely stick by Trump. Some members who had unendorsed him told BuzzFeed News they were already receiving angry calls from constituents asking why they weren't sticking by the nominee.

"We're upset Trump put us in this position," one member said. "We wish we were all on the same team united against Hillary."

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Democratic Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton offered stinging criticism of Hillary Clinton's comment that half of Donald Trump's supporters could be put in a "basket of deplorables."

"That line, about half of somebody's supporters being deplorables, was maybe the worst line I've ever heard in politics," Holmes Norton, a Clinton supporter, told Bill Press in an interview Monday. "You never — even when you're running against a bunch of racists, you never take off against the voters. It was a politics 101 foible."

Holmes Norton went on to blast Trump's appeals to black voters. Asking black voters "What do you have to lose?" is "about the worst thing you can do to black people who have been in this country for 400 years being stereotyped." Every time Trump uses that line, Norton said, "We flock to Hillary."

"The broad brush of stereotyping is what least appeals to people of color," Norton added.

Jeff Swensen / Getty Images

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence made clear he is all-in on his running mate’s campaign on Monday after rumors that he was considering leaving the ticket.

Speaking to a North Carolina audience, Pence addressed the controversy over the explosive tape showing Donald Trump making explicit comments bragging about sexually assaulting women at the top of his speech. The tape has caused an enormous amount of fallout in the Republican Party, with many prominent Republicans disavowing their support for Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan telling his conference that he will not defend the nominee.

“It’s been an interesting few days,” Pence said. “I joined this campaign in a heartbeat because you have nominated a man for president who never quits.” Pence said Trump is a “fighter” and a “winner.”

“You saw it last night on that debate stage,” Pence said. “He literally embodies the spirit of America. Strong, freedom-loving, independent, optimistic, and willing to fight every day for what he believes in and what makes this nation great.”

Pence said Trump had had “the humility to apologize,” and framed the situation as a kind of redemption narrative for Trump.

Pence said that “we all fall short in the glory of God and there’s no one righteous other than the one.”

“I don’t condone what was said and I spoke out against it,” Pence said. “But the other part of my faith is I believe in grace.”

“I believe in forgiveness,” Pence said, adding that Trump had “shown the American people what’s in his heart.”

Pence released a statement on Saturday saying he could not defend the remarks made on the tape that leaked on Friday — already an extraordinary statement of censure from a running mate to his nominee — but not leaving the ticket. On Sunday, his hometown paper the Indianapolis Star reported that his team was waiting to see how Trump performed in the debate and leaving Pence’s options open to potentially leave the ticket.

Trump seems to have cleared that bar, though Pence flatly denied on Monday morning in a television interview that he had ever considered leaving the ticket. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in the spin room after the debate on Sunday that “there has never been a more united ticket,” and Pence tweeted a congratulations to Trump after the debate and added “proud to stand with you as we #MAGA.”

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

MIAMI — Latino leaders believe the party's November reckoning should have serious consequences — starting, for two dozen of them, with Chairman Reince Priebus's resignation.

Ahead of the final debate in Las Vegas next week, prominent Republican Latinos will meet at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino. That meeting will officially be about charting a way forward for Republicans and Hispanics after what they expect will be Election Day carnage caused by Donald Trump, but there's another major item on the agenda.

"We're calling for the head of Reince Priebus," said Artemio Muniz, chair of the Texas Federation of Hispanic Republicans, and one of the organizers of the conclave. "Someone has to pay for the death of Santino, like in the Godfather."

In interviews, the Republicans said they feel "betrayed" by Priebus, who in meetings after the much ballyhooed but ultimately abandoned Growth and Opportunity Project in 2012, said he would be an ally in accomplishing immigration legislation.

"Reince told us he would call out whoever used extreme rhetoric on immigration, of course we feel betrayed," Muniz said.

The line the Latino conservatives repeated as their argument for Priebus's failures is that while Trump calls for "extreme vetting" of immigrants, the party was unable or unwilling to vet a candidate whose candidacy is in danger of falling apart after a damaging video was released that showed him bragging about forcibly kissing women and sexually assaulting them.

A new NBC News–WSJ poll, the first major poll released after the tape, showed Trump behind Clinton a whopping 11 points, after the race had previously tightened.

The group, whose members hail from 10 states including Texas, Colorado, California, New Mexico, and Nevada, will also discuss the creation of Project 44, an effort to embrace the inclusive values and policies that helped George W. Bush win 44% of the Latino vote.

The nascent initiative is seen as a repudiation of the traditional way the party has engaged Latinos, with members of the group arguing that outreach has been very superficial, focused on elections, and not breaking through to local communities.

"Too many Hispanics are doing piñata politics," said Alfonso Aguilar, who briefly endorsed Trump before abandoning him after his speech on illegal immigration in Arizona and will attend the meeting. "Here's the mariachi, here’s the candidate, 'Yeah, viva Bush!' We need more substantive conversations."

The group says they want to work more closely with donors to educate them on where their resources are going when it comes to reaching Hispanics but much of it, ultimately, will come down to securing a "reasonable solution to immigration and understanding that mass deportation is not an answer," Muniz said.

The conversation will undoubtedly have its awkward moments, with current and former members of Trump's floundering Hispanic advisory council at the meeting.

One of the former members, Jacob Monty, who was at the center of some controversy after he said Trump had indicated openness to some form of legalization for undocumented immigrants, also left after the Phoenix speech and is one of the organizers of the Vegas confab.

When Stephen Miller, with the Trump campaign, told the New York Times that the council, created by the RNC, was stocked with some "professional amnesty lobbyists," Monty hit back saying that he has been a Republican longer and donated more to the party.

Monty stressed that this group is not calling for amnesty — he said he believes in vetting immigrants — and that his message to the party is that doing nothing is effectively amnesty.

He too called for Priebus's dismissal, also in colorful terms. ("If we were in Japan after a debacle like this, he would have to go and do something to himself.")

The group is ready for criticism from the left in an effort to work on a conservative solution to fixing immigration issue, Monty said, suggesting an ID card for immigrants so the government knows who they are.

"In an era where people are blowing backpacks up, having an ID card is not crazy," he said, alluding to homegrown terror threats.

The immigration solution is tied to the third idea the group will discuss, which is the prospect of circulating an "immigration pledge" for congressional members to sign.

With the transition to the new administration coming after the election and as a former federal appointee by George W. Bush, Monty said Latino conservatives are in danger of being shut out for too long.

"That’s the reason why we’re calling for the meeting now, what we’re going to miss is a whole generation of political appointees," he said. "We've been gone for 8 years, now it's going to be 12, so the next generation of Latino Republican political leaders, we've lost them."

Still, the group will face difficulty garnering support for their plans, with a post-Trump Republican Party deciding how much of his nativist and restrictionist ideas it wants to incorporate.

Ruth Guerra, the RNC's former Hispanic media director who left to work on down-ballot races for the Congressional Leadership Fund partly because of discomfort in helping to elect Trump, said targeting Priebus would be unwise.

“I think that it would be a mistake to criticize and to place the blame on someone who has made the unprecedented effort of having Hispanic staff working in Hispanic communities across the country and on a year-round basis," she said. "It’s not something that’s easy, it’s not something that’s cheap, but he knows it’s important."

But Aguilar said that while the status of Priebus is an issue that will be discussed, no decisions have been made.

He wants Hispanic Republicans to be brought into the fold and listened to as the party decides the direction it wants to go in — beyond immigration. He doesn't want to water down its conservative message and become the "Democratic Party lite," nor does he side with some on the right "that just think immigration is bad for the country."

So why should the party listen to a group of Latino leaders that are starting trouble and being critical of the party? It's a matter of surviving, Aguilar argued.

"The danger is that we don’t have a winning coalition, it’s as simple as that," he said, calling Hispanics today’s Reagan Democrats. While immigration may not be the most important issue to Latinos, it's a gateway issue, he added.

"We have to be constructive — if we’re able to address immigration in a constructive way we can become competitive with Hispanics and bring them into the fold," he said, but recalled former California Governor Pete Wilson, whose anti-immigrant policies are credited with turning the state's Latinos against Republicans for good.

"What’s happening right now doesn’t need to be permanent," Aguilar warned.

Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton told Rachel Maddow a year ago that the Defense of Marriage Act was a defensive action that her husband backed in 1996 to stop anti-gay forces from "going further" and passing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying.

At the time, many LGBT advocates said she was wrong.

Several days later, BuzzFeed News published an extensive report detailing that there was no evidence in documents from the Clinton White House that Hillary Clinton's answer was accurate. The Clinton campaign did not provide comment for the report.

What was unknown at the time is that Clinton's senior campaign staff agreed with the advocates — and had previously done their own research, reaching the same conclusion as BuzzFeed News, according to hacked emailed released on Monday by WikiLeaks. The emails, from John Podesta's account, are part of a wave of hacks against Democratic and establishment political figures, which has been linked by the US government to Russia. The Clinton campaign has said it will not confirm individual emails, but Podesta has said he was hacked.

Within 48 hours of Clinton's comments to Maddow, Clinton speechwriter Dan Schwerin told most of the senior staff of the campaign that the only real question at that point was whether Clinton herself would say she was wrong.

He did not think that she would do so.

"I think everyone agrees we shouldn't restate her argument," Schwerin wrote in a hacked email. "Question is whether she's going to agree to explicitly disavow it. And I doubt it."

Clinton had told Maddow on Friday night, Oct. 23, 2015, "I think what my husband believed — and there was certainly evidence to support it — is that there was enough political momentum to amend the Constitution of the United States of America."

By Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25, the campaign's LGBT liaison, Dominic Lowell, started a DOMA email thread, telling staff, "Think all of us are getting incoming from friends in LGBT community about DOMA comments."

Noting that "policy and political need to tell us what you want us to do," he wrote, adding, "[W]e need a plan for how to hose down anxious friends."

Jake Sullivan, a longtime Clinton adviser, noted that staff had looked into the issue when Clinton had raised it previously in 2008, writing, "We did not turn up much to support idea that alternative was a constitutional amendment."

Maya Harris, a senior policy adviser, chimed in with an update from former Bill Clinton staffer Richard Socarides — who was working in the White House during DOMA's passage — who wrote, "[T]he effort to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage came some years later."

Lowell noted that former Human Rights Campaign president Elizabeth Birch and prominent Clinton backer Hilary Rosen both already had publicly stated that Clinton was wrong and added, "[M]y sense is that there aren't many friends who will back us up on the point. That's why I'm urging us to back off as much as we can there."

Schwerin weighed in, implicitly acknowledging that Clinton was wrong: "I'm not saying double down or ever say it again. I'm just saying that she's not going to want to say she was wrong about that, given she and her husband believe it and have repeated it many times."

Schwerin's comment prompted a strong response from Amanda Renteria, the campaign's national political director, who went even further than Lowell, writing, "There is no way we have friends to back us up on her interpretation. This is a major problem if we revisit her argument like this."

The next day, the Clinton campaign punted on the issue, with spokesperson Brian Fallon telling the Huffington Post on Monday, Oct. 26, "Whatever the context that led to the passage of DOMA nearly two decades ago, Hillary Clinton believes the law was discriminatory and both she and President Clinton urged that it be overturned."

On Thursday, Oct. 29, BuzzFeed News sought comment from the Clinton campaign about whether Clinton stood by her comments to Maddow in the context of its upcoming story about the 1996 consideration of DOMA. The Clinton campaign did not provide any comment.

Later that evening, BuzzFeed News published its report, concluding that "[t]here is no contemporaneous evidence ... to support the claim that the Clinton White House considered a possible federal constitutional amendment to be a concern, based on a ... review of the thousands of documents released earlier this year by the Clinton Presidential Library about same-sex couples’ marriage rights and the Defense of Marriage Act."

The next weekend, at a forum for the Democratic candidates for president on Nov. 6, Maddow asked Clinton about her claim. Clinton walked back her earlier comments, telling Maddow that she had "private conversations" in which the issue of an amendment was raised — no longer claiming that was a motivating factor for Bill Clinton backing DOMA or that there was any evidence for her claim.

"Well, certainly in thinking back on it those were private conversations that people did have," Clinton said. "That was something that came up in private conversations that I had.

"[I]f I'm wrong about the public debate, I obviously take responsibility for that," Clinton said.

Trump speaks during a town hall on Thursday in Sandown, New Hampshire.

Evan Vucci / AP

Donald Trump has a message for America: Brace yourself, because more damning recordings might be coming.

At a rally in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Trump addressed the disastrous 2005 video the Washington Post released Friday in which he could be heard talking about trying to have sex with a married woman and grabbing other women "by the pussy." It was the Republican presidential candidate's first rally since the video went public and launched a wave of criticism and defections from one-time allies.

"I was getting beaten up for 72 hours on all the networks for inappropriate words from 12 years ago, locker room talk, whatever you want to call it," Trump said of the video. "But I said to myself, 'Wait a minute. And I just saw very inappropriate words, but Bill Clinton sexually assaulted innocent women and Hillary Clinton attacked those women viciously.'"

Trump then seemed to imply that there could indeed be more similarly damning videos released in the near future.

"If they want to release more tapes saying inappropriate things, we'll continue to talk about Bill and Hillary Clinton doing inappropriate things," Trump said.

In the aftermath of the Post video, there has been widespread speculation that there could be other recordings — potentially from Access Hollywood, where the video was made; from Trump's time on The Apprentice; or from some other source. And additional video could be even more disastrous for Trump: After the Post published its story, a wave of criticism grew into calls for Trump to resign the Republican nomination. Multiple high-profile Republicans also took back their endorsements of the candidate.

Trump's rally Monday in Pennsylvania was a preview of how he plans to respond if more recordings surface. After downplaying his comments in the video as "locker room talk," he went on at length about the women he said the Clintons have victimized.

"Bill Clinton was the worst abuser of women ever to sit in the Oval Office, he was a predator," Trump said, adding later that "for decades Hillary Clinton has been deeply familiar with her husband's predatory behavior."

Trump alleged that Hillary Clinton also "put even more women in harm's way."

The attack on the Clintons came after he criticized Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server, her "deplorables" comment, and her record as secretary of state. It appeared to be a mix of scripted comments and off-the-cuff remarks and showed that Trump is bracing himself for the final weeks of an increasing bruising campaign by pointing again and again to the Clintons.

"I would say that Hillary is highly overrated," Trump added.

LINK: Donald Trump In 2005: “I Did Try And Fuck Her. She Was Married.”

LINK: Here’s The Long, Long, Long List Of Republicans Abandoning Trump

Danny Moloshok / AP

The producer of The Apprentice on Monday said he had not threatened to sue anyone who would potentially release unaired footage of Donald Trump, and he added he did not have the ability or right to release it himself.

Questions about what Trump might have said during the 14 seasons of the reality show arose last week after lewd comments made by the Republican presidential candidate during a 2005 taping of Access Hollywood were leaked to the Washington Post. One former producer of The Apprentice said Trump said far worse on tape.

As pressure mounted on producer Mark Burnett and The Apprentice's production company, a source told BuzzFeed News that Burnett had threatened to sue any staff member who leaked footage that would hurt Trump.

Burnett “is pro-Trump and has made clear to his teams that he will sue anyone who leaks,” the person told BuzzFeed News.

But on Monday, Burnett and MGM Television released a statement denying any threat was made.

MGM owns Mark Burnett’s production company and The Apprentice is one of its properties. Despite reports to the contrary, Mark Burnett does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from The Apprentice. Various contractual and legal requirements also restrict MGM’s ability to release such material. The recent claims that Mark Burnett has threatened anyone with litigation if they were to leak such material are completely and unequivocally false. To be clear, as previously reported in the press, which Mark Burnett has confirmed, he has consistently supported Democratic campaigns.”

The statement said neither Burnett nor MGM could release Apprentice footage due to contractual and legal requirements.

The statement echoed what NBC, which airs the show, earlier told the Associated Press.

A spokesperson for the network, Rebecca Marks, told AP she did not know if the network has unaired footage in storage, and even if they did, they would not be permitted to release it.

“We don’t have the legal right to give out the footage from that show,” Marks said.

LINK: Source: Trump-Backer Mark Burnett Has Warned Staff On “Apprentice” Leaks

John Moore / Getty Images

Newt Gingrich defended Donald Trump's embattled campaign Monday, lauding the Republican nominee as a "historic figure" for calling for an independent prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton and knocking Paul Ryan for not campaigning with Trump.

"The key point is when he said he would appoint an independent prosecutor... I think Trump crossed into being a historic figure by saying, you know, we have so much corruption in this administration," Gingrich told radio host John Gibson in an interview.

"Hillary Clinton herself is so corrupt that we really need to handle it as criminal justice matter, not just a campaign matter," Gingrich said. "I thought, in many ways, that was the most important conversation starter of the whole evening."

Gingrich also condemned House Speaker Ryan for abandoning Trump. “I think Paul Ryan’s got to follow his own politics, but I think it’s a mistake," Gingrich lamented. "Ryan becomes caught up in the emotions, a lot of Republicans do, because they don’t understand what the game is."

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ST. LOUIS — Not once, but twice did Donald Trump refer to black voters — for whom he'd do things "that are so great" — as "the African-Americans" during the debate on Sunday.

He do things that had never been done, he said, "including fixing and making our inner cities better for the African-American citizens that are so great.” With jobs, education and safety being a "disaster," Trump declared, "I'm going to help the African-Americans."

That phrasing is nothing new for Trump — who often throws articles before groups of people — but on Sunday night, #TheAfricanAmericans became a thing.

The viral social sentiment echoed a message senior Democrats have been pushing for quite some time, perhaps with less effect. During the legislative conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, black lawmakers excoriated Trump at a press conference. But the message didn't reach social media.

The podcaster and humorist Desus Nice, a central figure in the community widely known as "Black Twitter," said in an interview with BuzzFeed News that the hashtag #TheAfricanAmericans probably went viral "because Trump comes off as a guy who'd still own slaves if it were legal, so hearing 'the African-Americans' as if we were bananas at Whole Foods got us nervous.

"Also, when Trump describes any group of people, he always describes them as if their name was a category on a PornTube site."

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton said during an appearance on The Bill Press Show Monday that the worst thing you can do to black people is stereotype them: “The broad brush of stereotyping is what least appeals to people of color.”

Her colleagues agree.

“Look,” said Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri, who served as a surrogate for Clinton on Sunday night. “The man should never say ‘black’ or ‘African-American’ for the rest of his life. This man ran a full-page ad in the New York Times demanding capital punishment for young African-Americans who were innocent and who he still today is demanding that they be punished even though there's a man who confessed for having raped and killed a woman in Central Park. It's just the most amazing thing that he has not apologized for that.”

Those watching the debate saw Donald Trump’s reference to “the African-Americans” as being referred to as “other"; Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was at the debate here Sunday, likes to say black people "are not debtors to America, but creditors." Trump's comments had seemed to suggest the reverse was true.

Trump’s historically low support with black voters — he sometimes polls at literally zero points — has been attributed to a variety of factors: his reductive stereotyping of black communities; his harsh rhetoric toward minorities, including Muslims; his long campaign to question the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate; his slogan, which suggests a return to an earlier era of American history; his support for policies like stop-and-frisk, which was found to discriminate against black and Latino men; his continued belief that the Central Park Five, who were exonerated, are guilty; and his uneasy relationship with faith communities.

“African-Americans are not going to follow Donald Trump,” said Cleaver. “He can go to black churches all he wants. That's just not going to do it. That's like saying, ‘African-Americans are dumb, so I'll just go to their church and all of a sudden they're just going to fall out and vote for me.'"

During the debate, two black men seemed to represent a kind of national dubiousness about Trump's sincerity about helping black people. Images of both in the audience at the town hall — of James Carter, who asked a question, and another man whose name is not known — made the rounds on the internet.

Their visage became avatars for the anger and the incredulousness of Trump’s attempts at outreach, that he understands black Americans, let alone cares for them.

"I don't think he's ever had any contact with, or any empathy for, African-Americans,” said Cleaver. “Maybe except for people who work for him and bow down to him. But he gets 3% of the African-American population, he ought to have a celebration. That ought to be one of the biggest days of his life. Because my goal is to knock it down to 1%.”

Mel Evans / AP Photo

New Jersey Governor and former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Tuesday morning chimed in about the 2005 video of Donald Trump making vulgar comments about grabbing women by the pussy.

On CBS Sports’ Boomer and Carton radio show, Christie talked about the footage that surfaced last week, while serving as a guest host that morning.

The clip showed Trump talking to TV and radio host Billy Bush about his attempt to have sex with a married woman, and saying that when it comes to beautiful women, “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

“Grab them by the pussy,” Trump added. “You can do anything.”

Christie, who was with Trump when the Washington Post published the video Friday, did not try to justify his comments on the radio show.

“On the video itself, let’s be really clear: It is completely indefensible, and I won’t defend it, haven’t defended it,” Christie said. “That kind of talk and conversations, even in private, is just unacceptable.”

He said that while he does believe Trump is sorry for what he said, the apology could have been better.

“He should have been much more direct and much more focused on just saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ and only, ‘I’m sorry,’” Christie said of Trump.

Despite this, the governor said that he would continue to support Trump in the presidential race.

When asked if he thought the video was enough to sway undecided voters one way or another, Christie acknowledged that it was important to consider.

“I don’t think it’s immaterial, but I don’t think it’s the only way you should make a judgment,” he said.

“I’m really upset about what I heard, but in the end, this election is about bigger issues,” he said.

He also said that part of the responsibility of supporting a candidate is choosing when, and how, to disagree with them.

“If you’re with somebody, your job is to make them better," he said, adding that when he disagrees with Trump, he tells him in private.

When mid-morning host Evan Roberts, a registered Republican, told Christie that he shouldn’t have supported Trump and offered the possibility of a third candidate like Gary Johnson, the New Jersey governor shut it down.

“If you’re a Republican, a vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Hillary Clinton. If you’re a Democrat, a vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Donald Trump,” he said.

Donald Trump In 2005: “I Did Try And Fuck Her. She Was Married.”

Trump Says He Will “Never Withdraw” Despite Party Unrest Over His Lewd Comments

Jessica Kourkounis / Getty Images

Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes on Monday night said that Fifty Shades of Grey, a popular erotic romance novel published in 2011, was partly to blame for the culture that allowed for Trump’s vulgar comments about women from 2005.

In an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper and Republican political commentator Ana Navarro, Hughes cited the book when Cooper asked where society made it OK to say the things Trump said.

“Eighty million copies of Fifty Shades of Grey were sold,” Hughes said, adding that Magic Mike, a film about a male stripper, was so popular that it was made into a sequel.

Nell also referred to Twilight, “the vampire trilogy,” as well as Sports Illustrated and Playboy to back the argument that “sex, unfortunately, sells."

The first instance of someone blaming the novel — published six years after Trump was caught on video making lewd comments about women — cropped up on the internet moments after the footage surfaced Friday.

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Trump supporter Amanda Fraser told BuzzFeed News during a Trump rally on Monday that women "talk worse than men do on that aspect."

She also referenced the meme.

"I love the thing that's on Facebook that says, "If this offends women so much, who bought the 80 million copies of 50 Shades of Grey?" she said.

When Navarro responded to Hughes' assertions on CNN, she said, “Everything you just said is 50 shades of crazy. To compare running for president to an erotic film, an erotic movie, an erotic novel is crazy.”

Trump supporters have made other attempts to link Trump's comments to pop culture.

On Monday night, former Lt. Gov. of New York Betsy McCaughey called Hillary Clinton a hypocrite for her criticism of Trump because she is a fan of Beyoncé, who she said has "bad language" in her music.

Donald Trump In 2005: “I Did Try And Fuck Her. She Was Married.”

A Trump Supporter Quoted Beyoncé’s “Formation” On CNN To Criticize Hillary Clinton

Nam Y. Huh / AP

WASHINGTON — The federal appeals court based out of Chicago will reconsider whether existing civil rights law should be read to include protections against sexual orientation-based discrimination in sex discrimination bans.

The issue, raised in Kimberly Hively's case at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, is whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects lesbian, gay, and bisexual workers from discrimination under its ban on sex discrimination in the workplace.

The question is one that has been percolating in the lower courts in recent years, but this will be the first time a full federal appeals court is due to consider the issue en banc in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of marriage equality in June 2015.

This summer, a three-judge panel of the court ruled against Hively, extending prior decisions of the appeals court declining to protect gay people under Title VII. The court did so, however, in an opinion that acknowledged the difficulty of distinguishing so-called "sex stereotyping" claims, which are allowed, from pure sexual orientation discrimination claims, which had not been allowed under earlier decisions.

"It seems illogical to entertain gender non‐conformity claims under Title VII where the non‐conformity involves style of dress or manner of speaking, but not when the gender non‐conformity involves the sine qua non of gender stereotypes—with whom a person engages in sexual relationships," Judge Ilana Rovner wrote for the court.

In addition to agreeing to reconsider the case en banc — which means that it can overrule prior decisions of the appeals court — the court's Tuesday order vacated the three-judge panel's opinion and judgment from July.

Kirk Irwin / Getty Images

As Donald Trump has escalated his attacks on mainstream Republican leaders in recent days, Steve Bannon, Trump's campaign CEO and the architect of an event that featured Trump and women who have alleged that Bill Clinton abused them, has drawn increased attention.

Bannon, the former Breitbart News chief, has for a long time advocated a nationalist, populist approach to politics — and never shied away from attacking other Republicans. And Trump hasn't either, tweeting Tuesday that "the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to."

As first reported by Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic, Bannon years ago — in a 2010 interview — advocated rallying tea party supporters to "bitch-slap the Republican Party" in the 2010 midterm elections and beyond.

"Get those guys heeding too, and if we have to, we'll take it over to make it a true conservative party," Bannon said on Political Vindication Radio, a conservative talk show in California.

LINK: Trump Goes Full Breitbart

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday considered a question at the intersection of fundamental expectations about the criminal justice system: the protection of jury deliberations from investigation and the damage that any racial bias can do to the whole system.

After Miguel Angel Peña-Rodriguez was convicted on charges of harassing and having unlawful sexual contact with two teenage girls, two of the jurors on his trial told his lawyer that a third juror had expressed racist attitudes while the jury considered the case.

Colorado court rules — as with federal court rules — prohibit courts from considering evidence from jurors about what happens during jury deliberations.

The question before the Supreme Court on Tuesday was whether this case — and evidence of racial discrimination more broadly — should be an exception to that rule.

The juror, according to the others, said during deliberations that Peña-Rodriguez "did it because he’s Mexican and Mexican men take whatever they want," along with other similarly racist statements.

The justices appeared likely on Tuesday to give Peña-Rodriguez the chance to use the testimony of those jurors from his trial to convince Colorado courts that he did not receive a fair trial due to that racial bias.

The main issue up for debate appeared to be how and why race should be treated differently than other unfairness in how decisions might be made in the jury room. The more liberal justices appeared comfortable with the concept of treating race — and potentially other identity-based bias — differently from other juror issues.

Chief Justice John Roberts — joined by Justice Samuel Alito and, at moments, by Justice Stephen Breyer — appeared primarily focused on the implications for other identity-based discrimination and even other issues if the court "opened the door" to allowing in testimony about racial discrimination.

"He says everybody is afraid to open the door. All right?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor interjected at one point. "That's what Justice Breyer said. So tell me why that fear is not valid."

Peña-Rodriguez's lawyer, Jeffrey Fisher, explained that there were two reasons why an exception for race wouldn't necessarily need to be extended to other issues. The first, he said, is that the court has other "race-specific rules [regarding court proceedings] that have never been extended beyond race." The second, he said, is analogizing the levels of scrutiny that courts apply to equal protection cases. Under equal protection analysis, race is one of the few characteristics that receives the highest level — strict scrutiny.

Later, Colorado's lawyer, Solicitor General Frederick Yarger basically gave a response to Fisher's discussion, telling the justices, "I think it would be difficult in the context of the Sixth Amendment in the same courthouse in Colorado to tell one defendant that that defendant gets to impeach the verdict because the error that happened to occur during deliberations is racial, whereas across the hall it was religious, or it was simply the jurors disrespecting the jury system enough to flip a coin. And — and that's the problem."

When the Obama administration lawyer defending the Colorado policy took to the podium, Breyer shifted his focus, asking Rachel Kovner, assistant to the solicitor general, about the "prophylactic aspect" of having an exception to the rule barring juror evidence, saying "if you want impartial juries in general, you have to deal with the problem of racial confidence in the work of the jury."

Kovner, reiterating some of the points made by her Colorado colleague, focused on "the cost of this rule" and the alternatives to such an exception — including question asked during jury selection in a process called voir dire and "mid-trial reporting" of irregularities such as racial bias.

In his final comments to the justices, Fisher tried to pull the case back to his bottom line and an argument that he believes will make the justices comfortable with making an exception to allow for juror testimony — regardless of the possibility that others may seek to expand the exception later.

"[T]he Court has never refused to remedy intentional race discrimination in the criminal justice system for fear of having to address other questions down the line," he said.

The justices give no timeline for when they will reach a decision in cases, although decisions are usually handed down in all cases from the term by the end of June.

Evan Vucci / AP

Donald Trump continued his all-out fight with his own party Tuesday during an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, railing against Republican leaders who have refused to defend him after footage leaked of him making lewd comments about grabbing women.

"They don't give the support that we really need," Trump told O'Reilly during his first interview since the Access Hollywood video surfaced. "I think I may be be better off without their support."

Trump was referring to House Speaker House Ryan, who has said he will no longer defend the Republican nominee after an audio recording of Trump in 2005 saying he could "do anything" he wanted to women because he was a celebrity, including grabbing them "by the pussy," surfaced last week.

Many Republicans criticized the presidential nominee, and some withdrew their endorsement, but Trump doubled down, tweeting Tuesday that "the shackles have been taken off me."

"I think we should get support and we're not getting the support from Paul Ryan," Trump said. "I don't care about his support."

Trump also criticized Arizona Sen. John McCain, who also withdrew his endorsement after the video surfaced.

"Oh, give me a break. John McCain, the guy with the filthiest mouth in the Senate," Trump said of the war veteran. "I wouldn't want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people."

Trump's spat with his own political party comes just four weeks before the election and as he slides in national polls.

The Republican nominee has apologized for the Access Hollywood comments, but but in doing so has turned up his attack on Bill Clinton. He's also dismissed the comments as "locker room talk."

"I've had a lot of women come up to me and say, 'I've heard that and a lot worse throughout my life,'" Trump told O'Reilly.

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Brian Snyder / Reuters

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman implicated Donald Trump on Tuesday in the release of thousands of his hacked emails, saying the Republican nominee’s campaign may have had “advance warning” about the recent cyberattack.

On a flight here aboard Clinton’s campaign plane, John Podesta spoke to reporters for the first time since the website WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of his personal emails, including messages that could potentially damage the Democratic nominee.

Podesta said the FBI and law enforcement authorities are investigating the “criminal hack” of his email as part of an ongoing inquiry into attacks by Russian intelligence on other organizations, including the Democratic National Committee this summer.

US officials have linked some hacks that have been posted on WikiLeaks, the website DC Leaks, and a website run by a hacker named Gufficer 2.0, to a wider effort by Russia “intended to interfere with the US election process."

On Tuesday night, the Clinton campaign chairman pointed to comments made earlier this year by Roger Stone, a longtime member of Trump’s orbit and a former adviser to the campaign.

“A couple of months ago, Roger Stone confirmed that he was in touch with Julian Assange,” Podesta said, referencing the WikiLeaks founder, who has said he will not comment on sources.

"Around the same time, Stone pointed his finger at me,” Podesta added, “and said that I could expect some treatment that would expose me and ultimately sent out a tweet that said it would be my time in the barrel.”

"So I think it’s a reasonable assumption to — or at least a reasonable conclusion — that Mr. Stone had advanced warning and the Trump campaign had advanced warning about what Assange was going to do."

On Wednesday, WikiLeaks tweeted that the organization "has had no contact" with Stone.

Stone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Twitter in recent weeks, Stone had predicted that WikiLeaks would “educate the American people soon #LockHerUp.”

Clinton aides have drawn connections between Russia and the Trump campaign before, arguing that it would be in the best interest of the Kremlin to sway the race in the Republican nominee’s favor. But Podesta’s comments Tuesday night marked the campaign’s sharpest and most direct suggestion about Trump’s possible connection.

“There’s at least a reasonable belief that Mr. Assange may have passed this information onto Mr. Stone,” Podesta said, calling it “circumstantial evidence."

And what would explain the link? “You could start by looking at the positions that Mr. Trump has taken during the course of this campaign — ones that are more consistent with Russian foreign policy than with U.S. foreign policy,” Podesta said, citing Trump’s comments about weakening the country’s ties to NATO and his “apparent love affair, or bromance as I’ve called it, with Vladimir Putin.”

Podesta and other campaign officials have refused to authenticate the thousands of emails that have been released by WikiLeaks in spurts since Friday. The cache of private messages has revealed the inner workings of a highly private campaign, from strategists discussing message and strategy to excerpts of Clinton’s closed-door paid speeches.

Assange has indicated he will release thousands more of Podesta’s personal emails before the election.

Asked for his personal reaction to the exposure, Podesta admitted that the situation has been uncomfortable. “Any individual on this plane, if you think you'd like all the content of your email for 10 years dumped into public, think about how that feels. It doesn’t feel great."

“But I’m kind of zen about it at this stage,” he added.