Democratic candidate for the US presidency Hillary Clinton has described a video of rival Donald Trump making lewd comments about women in 2005 as horrific.
Republican Mr Trump issued an apology after the video emerged of him making the sexually charged comments, claiming it was “locker room banter”.
Mr Trump said "I apologise if anyone was offended" after the Washington Post revealed the video.
In the recorded conversation in 2005, Trump was wearing a microphone and chatting with Billy Bush, the host of NBC's television show Access Hollywood, ahead of a segment they were about to tape.
“I did try and f--k her. She was married,” Mr Trump said to Mr Bush. “I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there.”
Mr Trump talked about his attraction to beautiful women. “I just start kissing them,” he said. “And when you’re a star they let you do it,” he said. “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Demeaning language
Trump has previously come under fire for sexist and demeaning language he has used to describe women, including from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The new audio provides Clinton with powerful ammunition just ahead of the second presidential debate, on Sunday night.
Mr Trump, who has brought up former President Bill Clinton’s infidelities as a criticism of Hillary Clinton, calling her a “total enabler,” shrugged off the audio.
“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago,” Trump said in a statement.
“Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended,” Trump said.
A spokeswoman for Access Hollywood declined immediate comment.
Hillary Clinton called the tape “horrific” on Twitter and said: “We cannot allow this man to become president.”
In the first presidential debate, on September 26th, Mrs Clinton took aim at Mr Trump for what she said was sexist behavior, highlighting his criticism of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe who he said gained too much weight, saying he called her “Miss Piggy”.
Mr Trump, who had owned the Miss Universe pageants, refused to back down from his comments about Machado, unleashing a predawn Twitter tirade about her.
Town-hall debate
Sunday’s presidential debate, a town hall-style event, is seen as critical to Mr Trump as he tries to rebound from a slump in some opinion polls after a rocky performance in the first debate.
In the immediate aftermath of the news, some Trump campaign insiders were candid in expressing fears the tape could prove fatal to the campaign, but several others played down the impact, saying the tape was more than 10 years old and Trump had immediately apologised.
While most Republicans initially kept quiet, Democrats in battleground states excoriated them for continuing to support their candidate. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee even re-circulated a Republican press release previewing Speaker Paul Ryan’s appearance on Saturdayon a stage with Mr Trump in Wisconsin
– AP, Reuters, Bloomberg