Conservative megadonors and Donald Trump supporters Rebekah and Robert Mercer say they are "steadfastly behind" the GOP candidate amid a furor over a leaked 2005 tape of his sexually aggressive comments about women.
The Mercers, who have a reputation for bucking the Republican establishment, said in a statement they were "completely indifferent to Mr. Trump's locker room braggadocio."
Drawing a sharp line between Trump's 11-year-old remarks, and Hillary Clinton's policy positions and response to women who have accused her husband, former President Bill Clinton, of sexual wrongdoing, the Mercers declared "America is finally fed up and disgusted with its political elite."
"Trump is channeling this disgust and those among the political elite who quake before the boom-box of media blather do not appreciate the apocalyptic choice that America faces on November 8th," they said.
Here is their statement in full:
"If Mr. Trump had told Billy Bush, whoever that is, earlier this year that he was for open borders, open trade, and executive actions in pursuit of gun control, we would certainly be rethinking our support for him.
If he had admitted to Mr. Bush that he had profited privately by allowing the sale to Russia of 20 percent of U.S. uranium deposits or that he had amassed his personal fortune not by hard work in the private sector but by selling favors to foreigners on the American taxpayers' dime, we would certainly be rethinking our support for him.
"If he had argued that he needed both a public and a private position on issues facing the American public, we would certainly be rethinking our support for him.
"And finally if Trump had serially terrorized and silenced the victims of violent sexual assault whom he feared could damage his political career, we would most definitely be rethinking our support for him.
"Donald Trump's uncensored comments, both old and new, have been echoed and dissected in the media repeatedly in an effort to kindle among his supporters a conflagration of outrage commensurate with the media's own faux outrage. Can anyone really be surprised that Mr. Trump could have said to Mr. Bush such things as he has already admitted saying? No. We are completely indifferent to Mr. Trump's locker room braggadocio.
"The same media that resolutely looked away when the most powerful man in the world, a sitting U.S. president with multiple violent sexual assaults to his credit, snared an impressionable young intern in his web and ruined her life, now expects us to gasp with revulsion at Mr. Trump's irreverent comments.
"America is finally fed up and disgusted with its political elite. Trump is channeling this disgust and those among the political elite who quake before the boom-box of media blather do not appreciate the apocalyptic choice that America faces on November 8th. We have a country to save and there is only one person who can save it.
"We, and Americans across the country and around the world, stand steadfastly behind Donald J. Trump."