For one extraordinary weekend in October 2016, it looked as though the Republican Party might finally break with Donald Trump.
The Access Hollywood recording had been released two days earlier, capturing Trump making vulgar comments about women and describing conduct involving kissing and grabbing them.
The reaction inside the Republican Party was immediate.
Senators withdrew their endorsements.
Members of Congress called on Trump to leave the presidential race.
Republican candidates facing their own elections scrambled to distance themselves from the man at the top of their ticket.
Some Republicans suggested vice presidential nominee Mike Pence should replace him.
By October 9, The Washington Post counted 36 Republicans who had called for Trump to step aside.
Among those turning against him were some of the most recognizable figures in the Republican Party.
Trump's response was not to apologize to them.
He attacked them.
“So many self-righteous hypocrites,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The Republican revolt looked enormous.
It wasn't enough.
Trump's supporters remained with him.
Trump refused to leave the race.
And rather than the Republican Party eventually pushing Trump out, the political transformation ultimately moved in the opposite direction.
Trump survived.
He won the presidency.
And the Republican Party increasingly reorganized itself around him.
John McCain Withdraws His Support
One of the most significant defections came from Arizona Sen. John McCain.
McCain wasn't simply another Republican senator.
He had been the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.
Trump had already publicly attacked McCain during the campaign, infamously saying he preferred military personnel who had not been captured.
Despite that, McCain had continued supporting the Republican presidential ticket.
The Access Hollywood recording changed his position.
McCain announced that he could no longer support Trump and said he and his wife, Cindy, would instead write in the name of another Republican.
McCain said Trump's behavior and his comments about women made continued support impossible.
For a former Republican presidential nominee to abandon his party's current nominee approximately one month before Election Day demonstrated the seriousness of the crisis.
And McCain wasn't alone.
Republican Senators Begin Abandoning Trump
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman withdrew his endorsement.
New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte withdrew hers.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Trump had forfeited the right to be the Republican nominee.
Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner said he couldn't and wouldn't support someone who bragged about degrading and assaulting women.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee called on Trump to step aside.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune—the third-ranking Republican in the Senate—said Trump should withdraw and Pence should become the nominee.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk were among other Republicans opposing Trump's candidacy or calling for him to leave the race.
The rebellion wasn't confined to Washington's traditional Trump critics.
Republicans facing competitive elections had an immediate political problem.
They had to decide whether standing beside Trump was more dangerous than abandoning their own presidential nominee.
House Republicans Join the Revolt
Members of the House joined them.
Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz withdrew his endorsement.
Representatives including Barbara Comstock, Mike Coffman, Martha Roby, Rodney Davis, Fred Upton, Will Hurd and others called for Trump to step aside or said they could no longer support him.
Some Republican candidates said they would write in Pence.
Others said they would vote for another Republican.
Still others simply announced that Trump was no longer acceptable to them.
It was a remarkable spectacle.
The Republican Party had nominated Trump only months earlier.
Now, with Election Day approaching, elected Republicans were publicly discussing whether their own nominee should disappear from the ballot.
Other Republican Leaders Condemn Trump—but Stay
Not everyone abandoned him.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned Trump's recorded comments as unacceptable but did not withdraw his support.
House Speaker Paul Ryan had already disinvited Trump from a Wisconsin campaign event.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus condemned Trump's remarks.
Other Republicans issued statements criticizing Trump while stopping short of withdrawing their endorsements.
That distinction became important.
Republicans were nearly unanimous in saying Trump's recorded remarks were unacceptable.
They were far less united about what they were prepared to do about it.
Trump Refuses to Go Anywhere
Trump had absolutely no intention of withdrawing.
As Republican politicians deserted him, Trump made that unmistakably clear.
He declared that he would never drop out of the race and would never abandon his supporters.
Then he turned his anger toward Republican leaders.
On October 9, Trump tweeted:
“Tremendous support (except for some Republican ‘leadership’). Thank you.”
He also attacked the Republicans criticizing him:
“So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers—and elections—go down!”
Trump was effectively challenging his own party.
Republican officials were telling him that his behavior threatened the party.
Trump was telling Republican officials that opposing him threatened them.
That struggle would become enormously consequential.
The Republican Voters Didn't Follow Their Leaders
The revolt revealed something Republican leaders had struggled to understand throughout the 2016 primaries.
They did not necessarily control their own voters.
Trump had defeated a large field of experienced Republican politicians because millions of Republican primary voters preferred him to the party establishment.
Those supporters did not suddenly disappear because senators, governors and members of Congress condemned him.
Trump understood that.
His political power came increasingly from the loyalty of his supporters rather than the approval of traditional Republican institutions.
That gave him leverage over Republican politicians.
They could reject Trump.
But doing so risked angering Republican voters who remained loyal to him.
The relationship between Republican politicians and Trump's political base was beginning to reverse.
Instead of Trump needing approval from Republican leaders, Republican leaders increasingly needed approval from Trump voters.
Some Republicans Would Soon Come Back
The rebellion also proved less permanent than it initially appeared.
Some Republicans who called for Trump to withdraw or announced that they could no longer support him subsequently reversed course.
Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer called for Trump to step aside after the tape emerged.
Days later, she said she would vote for him.
John Thune called for Trump to withdraw and Pence to replace him.
Days later, Thune said he would vote for Trump.
Alabama Rep. Bradley Byrne said Trump wasn't fit to be president.
Days later, Byrne said he would vote for him anyway.
Jason Chaffetz withdrew his endorsement and said he couldn't look his 15-year-old daughter in the eye while supporting Trump.
Later that month, Chaffetz announced that he would vote for Trump despite not endorsing him.
Other Republicans made similar calculations.
The attempted separation between Trump and the Republican Party was already beginning to collapse.
Trump Wins
One month later, Trump won the presidency.
That changed the balance of power inside the Republican Party dramatically.
Republicans who had once condemned him now faced a Republican president with an intensely loyal political following.
Opposing Trump increasingly carried a price in Republican politics.
Supporting him increasingly became a prerequisite for many Republican candidates.
Some Republicans who resisted Trump eventually retired, lost primaries, left the party or became marginalized within it.
Others accommodated him.
And politicians who enthusiastically embraced Trump rose in prominence.
The Republican Party that emerged over the following years looked very different from the one that had nearly revolted against him in October 2016.
The MAGA Movement Takes Control
The term MAGA came directly from Trump's “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, but it eventually described something much larger than a presidential campaign.
It became a political identity.
Republican candidates sought Trump's endorsement.
Trump rallies became major Republican political events.
Republican primaries increasingly revolved around loyalty to Trump.
Candidates repeated his claims about elections, immigration, the media and government institutions.
Trump's confrontational style was adopted by politicians who recognized its appeal among Republican primary voters.
The relationship that had been exposed during the Access Hollywood crisis became increasingly clear:
Trump's greatest source of power inside the Republican Party wasn't Republican leadership.
It was Republican voters who supported him.
One of the Last Great Republican Revolts Against Trump
That makes October 9, 2016 historically revealing.
For a brief moment, Republican politicians appeared willing to draw a line.
John McCain withdrew his support.
Rob Portman withdrew his support.
Kelly Ayotte withdrew her support.
Lisa Murkowski rejected him.
John Thune called for him to leave the race.
Dozens of Republicans publicly condemned their own presidential nominee.
Trump looked politically isolated from much of the party establishment.
But Trump understood something the establishment hadn't fully accepted.
His supporters weren't leaving.
He remained in the race.
Some Republicans who had abandoned him returned.
He won the presidency.
And over the years that followed, the question inside Republican politics increasingly stopped being whether the party would reject Donald Trump.
Instead, Republicans increasingly had to decide whether they could survive politically if Donald Trump and his supporters rejected them.
October 9, 2016 looked like the beginning of the Republican Party's divorce from Trump.
History took it in the opposite direction.