Trump campaign in crisis ahead of second debate

UPDATE:  Donald Trump held a last-minute, pre-debate press conference featuring three women who have accused Bill Clinton's most prominent accusers: Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey.  

They were joined by Kathy Shelton, who says Hillary Clinton as an attorney in the 1970s attacked her credibility while representing a man she says raped her.

Mr Trump indicated the women would be in the Town Hall debate audience. 

The brief press conference was shown via Facebook Live, and abruptly cut-out after heckling. 

One thing seems clear: Mr Trump appears to be taking an aggressive approach, described variously as "scorched earth". "two wrongs make a right" and "the best form of defence is offence."

The Republican candidate has also threatened retaliation against Republican lawmakers who withdraw support.

EARLIER: Donald Trump's campaign is in meltdown ahead of his second debate with Hillary Clinton, which will take the form of a town hall-style meeting starting 2pm NZT (NBR will carry a live feed).

The Democrat has yet to address the sex-comments-caught-on-tape scandal, but says she will address the Republican's fitness to be president during today's clash.

The growing list of Republicans calling on Mr Trump to quit the race now includes South Dakota senator John Thune (the third-highest ranking GOP member in the 100-member Senate), who says Mr Trump's running mate Mike Pence should take over; New Hampshire senator Kelly Ayotte, who says she will write-in Mr Pence's name on her ballot paper; Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake; Alaska senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Merkowski, Idaho senator Mike Crapo; Ohio Senator Rob Portman; Nebraska senator Deb Fischer; Illinois senator Mark Kirk and Colorado senator Cory Gardner.  

They join Republican luminaries such as Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State under George W Bush, and at least 19 Republicans in the House of Representatives.

Many of the senators and House representatives had previously endorsed Mr Trump, if only on the pragmatic grounds that he was preferable to Mrs Clinton. 

Now, their calculus seems to be that a Clinton victory is inevitable. The focus has switched to limiting collateral damage in Congressional races. 

'Zero chance I'll quit'
But Mr Donald Trump remains defiant, even as his running mate Mike Pence calls his comments indefensible.

"There's zero chance I'll quit," Mr Trump said during a brief interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"The support I'm getting is unbelievable," he said.

And on Twitter, Mr Trump has re-animated this morning after a quiet couple of days. A barrage of combative posts has included:

So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers - and elections - go down!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2016

The Republican nominee has also re-tweeted posts from a woman who accused Bill Clinton of rape, pointing to a possible gloves-off approach to today's debate rather than the contrite display some in his party are hoping for.

Meanwhile, a producer on Mr Trump's long-running reality show The Apprentice says there were "far worse" conversations than the one released by The Washington Post. 

Various conversations on-air conversations with shock-jock Howard Stern are also coming back to haunt the candidate, including off-colour comments about his daughter Ivanka and his policy of never dating a woman over 35.

Who would replace him?
The Republican Party's constitution says it cannot sack his nominee ahead of the November 8 election.

The only prospect for change is if the New Yorker voluntarily steps down.

But if he does, it's not clear if Mr Pence or Senator Ted Cruz (second in the primaries) would take over.

In any case, the logistics are messy. Voting papers have been printed, and early voting has already opened in a number of states, including the battleground Ohio. By one count, 400,000 special votes have already been cast.

Already behind in the polls
The clash comes as many pundits wonder if the Republican nominee, four points behind Hillary Clinton nationwide before the tape scandal broke, and trailing key battleground states, has finally pushed it too far. The 2005 recording released by the Washington Post, features Mr Trump (unaware a microphone was already live ahead of an Access Hollywood interview) making lewd, predatory sexual comments about using his star power to grope women (listen to it here: warning – language and explicit themes).

The Republican nominee, who was newly-married to his third wife Melania at the time of the recording, also details in crude language how he tried to seduce a married woman as he chats with Access Hollywood reporter Billy Bush (George W Bush's nephew)

Predictably, his foe from the primaries Jeb Bush condemned the comments, tweeting:

As the grandfather of two precious girls, I find that no apology can excuse away Donald Trump's reprehensible comments degrading women.

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 7, 2016

But more worrying for Mr Trump, Mr Pence released a statement saying "I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them."

The highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, called Mr Trump's comments "sickening" and uninvited him from a fundraiser in his home state this weekend. Mr Trump said he would send Mr Pence in his place. In an unprecedented snub, his running mate refused.

The highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, majority leader Mitch McConnell said the comments were "repugnant," though like Senator Ryan stopped short of calling for Mr Trump to quit the race.

The senior Republicans' comments point to trouble ahead if Mr Trump defies the odds and does make it to the White House. While the Republicans will almost certainly retain their majority in the House, polls now indicate the party could lose its hold on the Senate (the Democrats need a net gain of five, or four if Hillary Clinton wins the White House, which would allow her running mate Tim Kaine to cast a deciding vote). But even if the Republicans hold the 100-seat upper house, Mr Trump will face the outright hostile Messrs McConnell and McCain, along with other Republican senators he has personally trashed such as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and the half dozen senators who have called on him to quit. They will hold the purse strings, and if anything they dislike their nominee more than any Democrat.

NBR editor-at-large Nevil Gibson writes that the best chance for the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a heavy Trump defeat. Access Hollywood's defective mic may have just delivered it.

An apology, of sorts, coupled with an attack
In a statement and in a video posted to Twitter (where he has otherwise been uncharacteristically quiet) Mr was sorry if his language offended anyone.

“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close," he said.

Tricky path just got narrower
One recent poll had college-educated white women favouring Hillary Clinton by a margin of 30%. The 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, led this demographic by 6%. To win, Mr Trump needs to somehow win over this group of women, and women as a whole. To have any hope, he will have to ignore his natural instinct to go on the attack at tomorrow's debate.

And while the socially-conservative Mr Pence dutifully added, “I am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologised to the American people," Mr Trump's comments are also likely to damage his prospects with evangelicals.  

Mr Trump's only hope of winning now lies with a new Hillary Clinton scandal emerging. Yesterday, Wikileaks released extracts of what it said were paid Hillary Clinton speeches to Wall Street firms. In the extracts, Mrs Clinton makes comments that could be construed as favourable to banks and free trade. However, the comments are not bombshell material (they failed to stir Bernie Sanders) and the Clinton campaign has yet to confirm if the extracts are authentic. In any case, they've been lost a news cycle dominated by Mr Trump as the New Yorker remains his own worst enemy.