TRUMP: THE PREDATOR PRESIDENT TSUNAMI OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS SINKS WHITE HOUSE HOPES FOR GOOD

A TSUNAMI OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS LOOKS CERTAIN TO RUIN DONALD TRUMP’S RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE – BUT WILL THEY ALSO FATALLY WOUND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND LEAVE IT FOREVER DAMAGED? OUR US CORRESPONDENT ANDREW PURCELL REPORTS FROM NEW YORK CITY

WHO will vote for Donald Trump now? Many millions of Americans, clearly, but far too few for him to win the presidency. The question is no longer whether Hillary Clinton will be elected, but how many Republican congressional candidates Trump will drag under with him. The Grand Old Party is holed beneath the waterline and its nominee is scuttling the lifeboats.

This was the week the rank misogyny of Trump’s campaign crested and came crashing down, as Republican women, horrified by the sexual predator selected as their party’s nominee and disgusted by the failure of elected officials to speak out against him, deserted in droves.

“If you can’t stand up for women and unendorse this piece of human garbage, you deserve every charge of sexism thrown at you,” wrote conservative activist Marybeth Glenn. “I’m just one woman, you won’t even notice my lack of presence at rallies, fair booths, etc. You won’t really care that I’m offended by your silence, and your inability to take a stand. But one by one you’ll watch more women like me go, and you’ll watch men of ACTUAL character follow us out the door.”

Trump still draws thousands of supporters to his rallies, including plenty of women. At a recent event in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a man who had come with his wife and three children wore a T-shirt reading “She’s A C***, Vote For Trump.” Other popular shirts and badges include Life’s A Bitch, Don’t Vote For One, and Hillary For Prison.

The gender gap in public opinion polls is startling. According to polling analyst Nate Silver, if only men were allowed to vote, Trump would win comfortably despite the revelations about his sexual misconduct. If only women could cast a ballot, the resulting landslide victory for Clinton would redraw the electoral map, confining the Republican party to a handful of states in the Deep South and the western mountains.

At the second presidential debate, Trump was asked by moderator Anderson Cooper whether he had ever kissed or groped a woman without her consent. He dismissed his boasts to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about grabbing women “by the p***y” and that “when you’re a star, they let you do it” as “locker room talk”, but Cooper persisted, and got a straight answer at the third attempt: “No, I have not.”

Several women have since come forward to say, actually, “Yes, he did”. Jessica Leeds, whose story about Trump grabbing her breasts and trying to put his hand up her skirt while on a plane was published in the New York Times, said his response at the debate made her so angry she decided to go public after decades of keeping the secret from all but her closest friends. Rightwing media outlets promptly published her address and phone number – it is no wonder she waited so long.

Taggart McDowell, a former Miss USA contestant, told NBC News that Trump kissed her on the lips uninvited. Receptionist Rachel Crooks accused him of doing the same in the lift at Trump Tower. Four contestants at Miss Teen USA 1997 said he walked into their dressing room unannounced while they were changing.

Writer Natasha Stoynoff was sent to Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in 2005 by People magazine to write a puff piece about the first anniversary of his wedding to Melania Knauss. She wrote that on the pretence of showing her around, Trump got her alone in a room and closed the door: “I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.”

More women will tell their stories before election day, and it is possible that more tapes will emerge, too. Bill Pruitt, a producer on Trump’s hit show, The Apprentice, has claimed that there are “far worse” clips in the vault. On Wednesday, CBS aired a segment from Entertainment Tonight’s 1992 Christmas Special, in which Trump talks to a pre-pubescent girl and then turns to address the camera: “I’ll be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?”

Republican legislators are in a no-win situation: they can denounce Trump’s behaviour in strong terms and risk a backlash from his base, or tacitly condone it and alienate swing voters. Many are performing exquisite contortions in an attempt to have it both ways.

Senator Richard Burr promised to watch Trump’s “level of contrition” before

If you can’t stand up for women and unendorse this piece of human garbage, then you deserve every charge of sexism thrown at you. You won’t really care that I’m offended by your silence. But one by one you’ll watch more women like me go and watch men of ACTUAL character follow us out the door

deciding whether to withdraw his endorsement. Senators John Thune and Debra Fischer called on Trump to withdraw and then back-pedalled three days later. On a conference call with reporters, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that he would not campaign for or defend Trump, but would still vote for him. Here, too, there is a gender gap. Five of the Republican party’s six female senators have withdrawn their support, compared to just 12 of its 48 male senators. In the House of Representatives, one in three Republican women have unendorsed Trump, but only one in nine men.

Trump, naturally, has responded by lashing out at his critics in the party: “So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll