US presidential debate: Clinton doubts Trump 'groping' apology

Hillary Clinton has cast doubt on Donald Trump's apology for remarks made 11 years ago about groping women.

In Sunday's presidential debate Mr Trump described the remarks - which have provoked outrage - as "locker-room talk", and denied he had groped anyone.

Mrs Clinton, the Democratic nominee, tweeted that if he stood by this assertion he was "clearly not sorry".

The tweet came as Mr Trump's running mate Mike Pence said he would stand by him despite an outcry over the remarks.

However, another senior Republican, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, said he would no longer defend Mr Trump and would focus on defending the party's majority in the legislative chamber, according to sources familiar with a conference call he held with congress members on Monday.

A 2005 video released on Friday revealed Mr Trump describing how he had sought to have sex with a married woman and making obscene comments about women.

Asked about the video in the debate, Mr Trump turned his fire on Mrs Clinton's husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, whom he described as "abusive to women". She refused to address the comments.

At least 38 senior Republicans - including senators, members of Congress, and state governors - have withdrawn their support since the video surfaced on Friday.

Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican officeholder, has officially given the signal. The SS Trump is sinking, and it's time for members of his party to calmly, quietly head to the lifeboats.

Republican control of Congress must be maintained at all costs, the House speaker asserted in his call to congressional rank-and-file on Monday, lest Hillary Clinton have the ability to advance her party's legislative priorities and seat sympathetic Supreme Court justices without opposition.

It's notable that after reports he was mulling a full unendorsement of the Republican nominee, Mr Ryan is apparently trying to a walk a fine line between abandonment and loyalty to his putative standard-bearer. His decision evokes shades of 1996, when Republican nominee Bob Dole's doomed presidential campaign rolled along, oblivious to a party apparatus that was focusing exclusively on down-ballot races.

It's worth keeping in mind that while Mr Ryan is sounding the abandon-ship alarm, Donald Trump may not play the stoic captain watching from the bridge. He's shown no loyalty to a Republican establishment that never truly embraced him and may have no qualms with lashing out at erstwhile friend and foe alike in the campaign's final, turbulent days.

Mr Trump apologised for the remarks, and when pressed during the debate on whether he had engaged in sexual misconduct, he denied doing so.

But Mrs Clinton said his explanation that these were words not actions did not amount to an apology.

"If Trump stands by what he said about women as "locker room talk," he's clearly not sorry," she tweeted.

Meanwhile Mr Pence praised Mr Trump's honesty.

"I think last night he showed his heart to the American people. He said he apologised to his family, apologised to the American people, that he was embarrassed by it," he told CNN on Monday.

Earlier Mr Pence had described the remarks as indefensible.

The vice-presidential candidate said he was "honoured to stand with" Mr Trump and denied he had considered withdrawing from the race.

"It's absolutely false to suggest that at any point in time we considered dropping off this ticket," he said.

When moderator Anderson Cooper asked about the video, Mr Trump denied ever sexually assaulting women, dismissing the remarks as "just words". Instead he focused on Bill Clinton's indiscretions.

Mrs Clinton said the explosive video "represents exactly who he is".

"With prior Republican nominees, I disagreed with them," she added, "but I never questioned their fitness to serve."

Mr Trump said if he won, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Mrs Clinton and she would be in prison over her private email arrangements.

"Everything he just said is absolutely false but I'm not surprised," she responded. "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country."

"Because you'd be in jail," he interrupted.

Mr Trump also said his Democratic rival "has tremendous hate in her heart" while criticising her for referring to his supporters as "deplorables".

Mrs Clinton said she apologised for the comment, adding: "My argument is not with his supporters, it's with him, about the hateful and divisive campaign he has run."

The two also sparred on the conflict in Syria, Russian aggression, Trump's refusal to release his tax returns and his plan for the "extreme vetting" of immigrants arriving from countries with links to terrorism.

The evening concluded when an audience member asked the candidates to say one positive thing about each other.

Mrs Clinton said his children were a great reflection of him while Mr Trump called his opponent "a fighter" who never gives up.

An hour before the debate began, Mr Trump appeared at a news conference with women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct.

He joined three women who allege the former president sexually assaulted them and called the women "very courageous".

Mrs Clinton also defended controversial remarks she made in a private speech that was made public in leaked emails on Saturday.

The transcript revealed she said a politician has a public and private position, but at the debate she said she had watched a film about Abraham Lincoln and was referring only to what he had done.

Kathy Shelton, a fourth woman who spoke, encountered Mrs Clinton in a criminal case when she was 12 years old.

Early in Mrs Clinton's legal career, she was appointed to defend Ms Shelton's rapist, despite objections, and had his sentence reduced to a lesser charge.

Years later, an audio tape emerged of Mrs Clinton speaking with a reporter, in which she can be heard laughing about the case.

During one instance, she laughed after explaining that her client had passed a lie detector test, which convinced her to never trust them again./Missany