Let’s pick up the transcript where we left off. Without yet denying that he had kissed or fondled women without their permission, Trump veered off into talking about ISIS:

You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, where you have—and, frankly, drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over, where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medieval times. We haven’t seen anything like this, the carnage all over the world. And they look and they see. Can you imagine the people that are, frankly, doing so well against us with ISIS? And they look at our country and they see what’s going on.

Saying one’s bad behavior does not rise to ISIS-like levels is a strange defense, indeed!

Trump continued:

Trump: Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. But it’s locker room talk, and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS. We’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment. And I will tell you, I will take care of ISIS. Cooper: So, Mr. Trump… Trump: And we should get on to much more important things and much bigger things. Cooper: Just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent? Trump: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Cooper: So, for the record, you’re saying you never did that? Trump: I’ve said things that, frankly, you hear these things I said. And I was embarrassed by it. But I have tremendous respect for women. Cooper: Have you ever done those things? Trump: And women have respect for me. And I will tell you: No, I have not. And I will tell you that I’m going to make our country safe. We’re going to have borders in our country, which we don’t have now. People are pouring into our country, and they’re coming in from the Middle East and other places. We’re going to make America safe again. We’re going to make America great again, but we’re going to make America safe again. And we’re going to make America wealthy again, because if you don’t do that, it just—it sounds harsh to say, but we have to build up the wealth of our nation.

So Trump ultimately denied ever doing those things, and urged that the topic be dropped.

It will not be dropped, not only because his rival’s campaign has every incentive to keep broadcasting Trump’s viscerally disturbing comments to swing state voters, but because the denial that Trump has ever engaged in this sort of behavior is undermined by three women who say that he kissed or groped them without their consent, exactly as he bragged about doing in his conversation with Billy Bush.

Quartz summarizes the three accusations:

Earlier this year, the New York Times interviewed dozens of women who’ve worked with Donald Trump. Temple Taggart, a former Miss Utah who was 21 when she met Trump in 1997, described Trump behaving exactly as he boasts in the recording. “He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s inappropriate.’” This happened repeatedly, she said. In response, Trump told the New York Times he was reluctant to kiss strangers on the lips. Since the recording was published, CNN anchor Erin Burnett said her friend had experienced the same behavior from Trump. “That’s exactly what Trump did to me,” Burnett said, quoting her friend. “Trump took Tic Tacs, suggested that I take them also. He then leaned in … catching me off guard and kissed me almost on the lips. I was really freaked out.” In 1997, Trump was sued for sexual harassment. The New York Times recently published details of the plaintiff’s allegations. Jill Harth, who regularly met with Trump in the ‘90s to form a business partnership, described how Trump repeatedly groped her, pushed her against a wall, and tried to kiss her. In 1993, she said Trump was showing her around his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “I was admiring the decoration, and next thing I know he’s pushing me against a wall and has his hands all over me,” Harth told the New York Times. “He was trying to kiss me. I was freaking out.” She said Trump repeatedly tried to grab her and that she once vomited as a defense mechanism. Trump has denied these accusations.

It’s extremely hard to disbelieve all three of these women when Trump bragged about doing just what they say he did to them: kissing or groping them without their consent. And my sense is that many voters have not yet heard their allegations. Said Scott Adams in a reaction to the Trump tape, “Don’t assume that the women were unwilling. (Has anyone come forward to complain about Trump?)”