“When Mr. Trump attacks women and demeans the women in our nation and in our society, that is a point where I just have to part company,” McCain said during a debate Monday. | AP McCain on not supporting Trump: Women 'cannot be degraded and demeaned'

Sen. John McCain called his decision to withdraw his endorsement of Donald Trump “not pleasant” during a debate against his Senate campaign opponent Monday night, but said Trump’s graphic and vulgar discussion of women in recently published audio clips forced his hand.

“When Mr. Trump attacks women and demeans the women in our nation and in our society, that is a point where I just have to part company,” McCain said in the debate, broadcast on Arizona’s PBS station. “It’s not pleasant for me to renounce the nominee of our party. He won the nomination fair and square. But this is – I have daughters. I have friends. I have so many wonderful people on my staff. They cannot be degraded and demeaned in that fashion.”


His comments came as his challenger, U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, berated McCain during the debate more than 60 times for endorsing Trump, according to the Arizona Republic.

The decision by McCain, who was the Republican Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, to abandon Trump came Saturday amid the real estate mogul’s campaign’s latest death spiral. In previously unpublished clips made public by The Washington Post, Trump describes how he “did try and fuck” a married woman and describes in graphic detail how his celebrity status allowed him to sexually assault women and get away with it.

“And when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump can be heard saying on the recording. “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

The Arizona senator’s relationship with the Republican nominee has been tenuous nearly from the start of the real estate billionaire’s campaign. In July of 2015, Trump responded to critical remarks from McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, by telling an Iowa audience that the former Navy pilot was “not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured. I hate to tell you.”

McCain was slow to endorse Trump and even after he did, was hesitant to discuss the Manhattan billionaire publicly. He shied away from defending the GOP nominee’s numerous other gaffes and controversial remarks, publicly breaking with him on some, but maintaining his support until this weekend.