St. Louis

Two days after the videotape of Donald Trump's now-infamous 2005 lewd conversation was released, the Trump team remains divided over the most serious question arising from the tape: Is Trump talking about sexual assault?

"Yes," "no," and "maybe," his surrogates reply.

Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, a top Trump surrogate, said Sunday night that Trump used "very improper language," but Sessions insisted in the post-debate spin room that behavior Trump described in the video wouldn't constitute sexual assault.

SESSIONS: This was very improper language, and he's acknowledged that. TWS: But beyond the language, would you characterize the behavior described in that [video] as sexual assault if that behavior actually took place? SESSIONS: I don't characterize that as sexual assault. I think that's a stretch. I don't know what he meant— TWS: So if you grab a woman by the genitals, that's not sexual assault? SESSIONS: I don't know. It's not clear that he—how that would occur.

In the 2005 Access Hollywood video, Donald Trump, newly-married to his third wife, sees an actress through the window of a bus and exclaims: "Whoa! Whoa!"

"I've got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her," Trump says. "You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p---y. You can do anything."

On Sunday morning, another top Trump surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, conceded in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on This Week that Trump was describing sexual assault.

"The problem isn't just the words," Stephanopoulos said. "What Trump is describing in that tape is sexual assault."

"That's what he's talking about," Giuliani replied. "You know, whether it happened or not, I don't know. And how much exaggeration was involved, I don't know."

Kathleen Willey, a woman who accused Bill Clinton sexually assaulting her, was invited by the Trump campaign to Sunday's debate. Willey had a straightforward answer about the Trump tape: The behavior Trump was describing would've amounted to sexual assault, but she accepted his claim that he never engaged in such behavior. "Well, if he had, yes it would have [been assault]. But he didn't," said Willey. (She did not volunteer a reason why she doesn't believe Trump's own accusers.)

Other Trump surrogates ducked the question in the spin room following Sunday night's debate.

"I don't know. I'm not a lawyer," the RNC's Sean Spicer told TWS.*

"I think it's kind of pointless to talk about hypotheticals," said Sarah Huckabee.

"It was bawdy locker room talk," said Trump aide Stephen Miller. "Nothing that he said he has ever done. Period."

During the debate, Trump himself seemed to dispute that characterization of his comments.

Debate moderator Anderson Cooper said to Trump: "You called what you said locker room banter. You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?"

"No, I didn't say that at all," Trump replied. "I don't think you understood what was — this was locker room talk. I'm not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk."

Cooper then asked Trump three more times if he had ever engaged in the behavior described on the tape. After the third try, Trump finally said he had not:

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.

*Update: The RNC's Sean Spicer emails TWS with the following comment: "While I was asked question about a matter of law, it is never appropriate to touch anyone in an unwelcome manner."

Update II: On Monday night, a spokesman for Jeff Sessions emailed TWS this statement from the senator: "The Weekly Standard's characterization of comments I made following Sunday's Presidentia l debate is completely inaccurate. My hesitation was based solely on confusion of the contents of the 2005 tape and the hypothetical posed by the reporter, which was asked in a chaotic post-debate environment. I regret that it resulted in an inaccurate article that misrepresented my views. Of course it is crystal clear that assault is unacceptable. I would never intentionally suggest otherwise."

Asked again by email if Sessions believes Trump was describing behavior that would constitute sexual assault, Sessions' spokesman did not provide an answer to the question Monday evening.