Sunday 22 May 2022 02:40 PM Donald Trump considered QUITTING 2016 race over Access Hollywood tape, ... trends now
Donald Trump considered dropping out of the 2016 presidential race amid fallout from the infamous Access Hollywood tape where he can be heard boasting about getting to 'grab [women] by the p***y,' a new book excerpt from Kellyanne Conway revealed on Sunday.
Then-candidate Trump was apparently worried the Republican Party 'could force him off the ticket or hold a vote to expel him' over the embarrassing tape, leaked roughly a month before Election Day.
Conway, a former top White House adviser and Trump campaign manager, recounted a crisis meeting with her then-boss over the audio in her forthcoming memoir 'Here's The Deal.' A copy was obtained by the Daily Beast.
'Should I get out [of the race]?' Conway recalled Trump asking her on October 8, 2016, a day after the decade-old tape was released.
The ex-adviser told him that he 'actually can't' drop out 'unless you want to forfeit and throw the whole damn thing to Hillary.'
Trump wound up losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton but swept the race with an Electoral College victory.
'What do you mean, I can't?' Trump is described as 'firing back' at Conway.
She reportedly reasoned that it was too late to quit because early voting had already begun.
'I know you don't like to lose...but I also know you don't like to quit,' Conway recalled telling Trump in the Sunday excerpt.
She said he asked: 'Will I lose? Will we lose? Can we still win?'
Kellyanne Conway is releasing a new memoir about her time as Donald Trump's campaign manager and later White House conselor, titled 'Here's The Deal'
Conway's account claimed she tore into Trump himself over the October 2016 Access Hollywood tape, calling his comments 'disgusting' and 'reprehensible' despite defending them on television at the time.
The meeting reportedly took place in Trump Tower - not in the former real estate executive's office, but rather 'around the corner from the elevator landing on the 24th floor,' according to the Beast.
And Trump's reported uncertainty about his ultimately successful presidential bid is
