Trump won’t quit White House race

Tycoon vows to ppress on as pparty calls for him to step down

The list is growing of elected Republican officials and others who want tycoon to abandon his presidential campaign or they will not vote for him.

NEW YORK: A defiant Donald Trump insisted he would “never” abandon his White House bid, rejecting a growing backlash from Republican leaders nationwide who disavowed the GOP’s presidential nominee after he was caught on tape bragging about predatory advances on women.

Trump’s own running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, declared he could neither condone nor defend Trump’s remarks in a 2005 videotape that sparked panic inside Trump Tower and throughout the Republican Party with early voting already underway exactly one month before Election Day.

“We pray for his family,” Pence said in a statement after cancelling a Wisconsin appearance scheduled with House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, both of whom had condemned Trump’s remarks the day before but stopped short of withdrawing support altogether.

The furore places enormous pressure on Trump to try to tamp down a crisis sure to spill into the presidential debate.

But even as the fallout deepened fractures in a party already torn about Trump, many remained loyal to the political outsider. Wisconsin voter Jean Stanley donned a shirt proclaiming “Wisconsin Women Love Trump” and called Ryan a “traitor” for denouncing the presidential contender’s comments.

“He’s a real human,” Stanley said of the New York businessman, surrounded by Trump supporters at the Wisconsin rally where he was set to appear before the videotape emerged.

Ryan and Priebus did not join a chorus of GOP officeholders from Utah to Alabama to New Hampshire who decided the former reality television star’s bombshell was too much to take.

More than a dozen Republicans announced on Saturday they would not vote for Trump. — AP