WALEED Aly has demolished Donald Trump and called him out for sexual assault in a scathing editorial which condemned the Republican presidential nominee.

In the editorial, co-written by Aly and The Project’s managing editor Tom Whitty, Aly zeroed in on Trump’s now infamous p***y remarks — a 2005 recording — which shows Mr Trump verbally demeaning women; notably, Access Hollywood host Arianne Zucker and Entertainment Tonight host Nancy O’Dell.

In the video, released by the Washington Post over the weekend, Trump discusses candidly his desires for women and brags that when you’re a “star” you can “do anything”.

“I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her,” Trump says, the microphone rolling. “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****. You can do anything.”

In an unapologetic smackdown, Waleed said the latest comments to come to light were “the moment that everything we’ve suspected about Donald Trump was confirmed” and accused him of “sinister motivations” and “double standards”.

“Behind closed doors there is everything that makes our stomachs turn. The predatory nature. The privilege. The sexism. The double standard. The sinister motivation. Behind closed doors, this is what Donald Trump sounds like,” Aly said.

Aly said for too long, the world has allowed Trump’s offensive comments — including his remarks that Mexicans are rapists, calling for a ban on the immigration of Muslims and advocated torture, and the murder of women and children in the hunt for terrorists.

“But this time, people aren’t moving on,” Aly said.

“Instead, many from his party, including senators and governors, have sought to distance themselves from Trump, withdrawing their endorsement of him. And they’ve been tearing apart the rule books hoping to find a way of replacing him.”

Overnight, Arnold Schwarzenegger was among a host of celebrities who pulled their support for the Republican Party, while Robert De Niro blasted Trump in a video in which he described the real estate mogul as “a fool” and “a punk”.

As proud as I am to label myself a Republican, there is one label that I hold above all else - American. My full statement: pic.twitter.com/biRvY8S3aZ — Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) October 8, 2016

Aly credited the thousands of women across the globe — including Australia — who responded to Canadian writer Kelly Oxford’s call-out to women to “tweet me your assaults”, as inspiration for the editorial, in which he demanded it was time to take Trump seriously.

“What followed, under the hashtag #notokay, were 140,000 devastating stories of abuse from women all over the world,” Aly said.

“Australian women were represented as well, which is not surprising given the latest research in Australia shows that last year, police recorded 21,380 Australians were victims of sexual assault. How many assaults went unreported, we don’t know.”

Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren't just stats. I'll go first: Old man on city bus grabs my "pussy" and smiles at me, I'm 12. — kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) October 7, 2016

In a news.com.au editorial, columnist Jamila Rizvi revealed one in three women will be a victim of violence in her lifetime and one in five women will be a victim of sexual violence.

“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve fallen back on those statistics,” Rizvi wrote.

“I’ll be arguing with someone — usually a man — who refuses to acknowledge how pervasive violence against women really is.

@kellyoxford 18 yrs old at college.Went to bed alone, woke up to guy on top of me.He went to jail. Got out.I'm still in own prison. #NotOkay — Meredith Howell (@sayholalola) October 9, 2016

Trump issued a public apology for the 2005 video in which he admitted to groping and forcing himself on women.

The rare admission of wrongdoing from the billionaire businessman began with Trump admitting he was not “a perfect person” and ended with him threatening to make more of Bill Clinton’s infidelities, ahead of the second presidential candidates debate with Hillary Clinton on Monday, Australian time, news.com.au reported.

Here is my statement. pic.twitter.com/WAZiGoQqMQ — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2016

And in an Australian twist, Aly threw Pauline Hanson under the bus (no pun intended) for “defending Trump’s behaviour”.

Senator @PaulineHansonOZ ignited debate over @realdonaldTrump comments by claiming a lot of men say horrific things. https://t.co/W9l7qnGqiW — 7 News Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) October 10, 2016

“We wouldn’t want those guys to be the most powerful person on the planet either,” Aly said. “This is a man who when he thinks no one can hear him, boasts about sexual assault. And the problem here is that it’s not a surprise. It doesn’t jar with the image Trump puts forward publicly. It just completes it.”

In an impassioned plea, Aly said it was time to “take a breath”.

“We all need to change, me included,” he concluded.

“Even though we’re on the other side of the world, and our coverage of the US election won’t even register on Trump’s radar, we feel as part of “the media”, that we can’t continue to be so narrow in our thinking, our reporting, our analysis.

“You deserve better, and we need to own up to that. Donald Trump hasn’t been a laughing matter for a long time, but we’re making a commitment, between now and the election, not to joke about Trump.

“Because sexism is no laughing matter. Racism is no laughing matter. Inciting violence is no laughing matter. Sexual assault is no laughing matter. And for those reasons and sadly more, Donald Trump … is no laughing matter.”

Aly backed Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s remarks during the second Presidential debate, where she qualified:

“Donald Trump is different. I said starting back in June that he was not fit to be president and commander in chief. Many Republicans and independents said the same thing.

“What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women. And he has said that the video didn’t represent who he is.

“But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is. Because we’ve seen this throughout the campaign. We have seen him insult women.

“We’ve seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to ten. We’ve seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter.

“We saw him after the first debate spend nearly a week denigrating a former Miss Universe in the harshest, most personal terms.

“So yes, this is who Donald Trump is.”

- youngma@news.com.au

Originally published as Waleed Aly demolishes Donald