It seems as though the Republican Party finally looked in the mirror and realized they got a botched nose job.
But lopping off their Trump-sized problem this late in the presidential contest may prove difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish.
The fallout from the new audio that surfaced Friday of Trump demeaning women, even joking about violently pulling them around by their private parts, has been swift and is coming from every part of the GOP's diverse political spectrum.
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On Saturday, congressional Republicans fled Trump in droves.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who recently made headlines for calling Trump a good role model for her children (only to recant the statement within hours of making it), now says she won't be voting for Trump.
“I wanted to be able to support my party’s nominee, chosen by the people, because I feel strongly that we need a change in direction for our country,” Ayotte said in a statement Saturday. “However, 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.”
Female Republican senators followed her lead Saturday but three took it a step further. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Deb Fischer and Lisa Murkowski called for him to step aside. Sen. Susan Collins declared she would not support Trump last summer. Only one female senator, junior Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, is still supporting Trump, but she too condemned his comments, calling them “reprehensible.”
But, of course, it wasn’t just female members ending their support of Trump.
Many Republicans are now hoping to push Trump out, with mere weeks left in the election, and put his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, at the top of the ticket.
"Donald Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should be our nominee effective immediately," tweeted Sen. John Thune (R-SD), who is a member of the Republican leadership team in the Senate.
Former Republican presidential nominee John McCain has also rescinded his support, while moderate Republicans who never tossed their support behind Trump in the first place, including Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Ohio Governor John Kasich, further condemned him.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, told The Daily Beast: “His comments are offensive and unacceptable.” But for now, Paul is not pulling out of his endorsement.
GOP Rep. Joe Heck, who is running to replace Harry Reid in Nevada's open and close Senate race, has also walked back his support of Trump.
"I can no longer look past the pattern of behavior and comments that have been made by Donald Trump," Heck told a crowd in Nevada. "Therefore I cannot in good conscience ... continue to support Donald Trump, nor can I vote for Hillary Clinton."
Other prominent GOP Senate incumbents, like Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), stopped short of rescinding their support of Trump, even as they criticized him for the vulgar recording.
"Donald's comments were vulgar, egregious & impossible to justify. No one should ever talk about any woman in those terms, even in private,” said Rubio, falling short of rescinding his support.
In total, around three-fourths of Republican members of the Senate either condemned the comments, said they wouldn't vote for the Republican nominee or demanded that he step aside.
And that’s not all.
House Republicans are also jumping on the anti-Trump bandwagon. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who has been spearheading many congressional investigations of Hillary Clinton, was the first member of the House to abandon Trump.
“I can’t tell the good people of Utah that I endorse a person who acts like this,” Chaffetz said Friday night on CNN, adding that he doubts his state will go blue this year. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Col.) and first-term Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) soon followed suit in pulling their endorsements.
The fight went beyond Republicans currently serving in office.
Republican action star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman both rescinded their support of Trump. Huntsman went as far as to ask him to step aside for Pence, his running mate.
Even Condoleezza Rice weighed in. The former secretary of state, who seems allergic to election year politics, posted a message on Facebook Saturday evening.
“Enough! Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw,” she wrote.
“As a Republican, I hope to support someone who has the dignity and stature to run for the highest office in the greatest democracy on earth.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who threatened moderate Republicans who had previously withheld their support of the party's bombastic nominee, suspended the RNC's Victory Campaign, according to Politico, which was in place to help Trump win in November.
Pence canceled an event he was supposed to hold Saturday with House Speaker Paul Ryan, after the Trump campaign initially said the Indiana governor would be replacing him. Pence released a statement that read, in part: “As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump.”
“I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified," Ryan said in a statement. "I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip represents."
For his part, Trump issued a rare apology, potentially a first for the brash billionaire who has written and bragged about never apologizing, for joking about violently handling women.
"I've said and done things I regret," Trump said in a video statement released late last night. "Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”
The video statement, though, was somewhat of a double-down on the campaign's attempts to tie Hillary Clinton to her husband’s marital infidelities.
“Hillary Clinton and her kind have run our country into the ground,” Mr. Trump continued. “I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims.”
Those lines of attacks have angered some Republican operatives because of Trump's own infidelities. And the GOP candidate desperately needs suburban white female voters in his corner if he has any hopes of winning in key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The fallout from these newly released comments from Trump comes a week after the headlines were dominated by Trump's tongue-lashing of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom he had previously called "Ms. Piggy" and "Ms. Housekeeper," after she gained weight.
Many Republicans are now hoping to push Trump out, with mere weeks left before the election, and have Pence carry the party’s banner.
So far the former reality TV star has rebuffed calls for him to exit the race and save the party from fighting to maintain majorities in the House and Senate with a seemingly toxic nominee on top of the ticket.
And there were hints that his remorse was short lived. On Saturday afternoon he tweeted a statement blaming Democrats and the media for the current state of his campaign.
The controversy and rank and file blood-letting by the GOP comes a day before the much-anticipated second presidential debate in St. Louis, which is slated for Sunday night at 9pm EST.
Polls indicated that Hillary Clinton resoundingly won the first debate, which broke records for viewership. With Trump's newly-unearthed comments leading cable news Friday evening and into the weekend, millions of viewers are expected to tune in on Sunday to watch Trump's train wreck of a campaign continue to unfold in real time.
