Heidi M. Przybyla

USA TODAY

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he can "certainly tone down" his rhetoric that Hillary Clinton was an "enabler" of her husband's extramarital sexual relationships.

Trump, speaking in an interview with KGLO Radio in Iowa, responded to a USA TODAY story about Republican women concerned that his focus on Bill Clinton's affairs, including with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, could backlash and create sympathy from female Republican voters for Hillary Clinton, while distracting voters from other issues of potential vulnerability.

“I can certainly tone it down,” Trump said Thursday morning. “There’s no question about that.”

The USA TODAY article quotes women, including the former chair of the New Hampshire GOP, saying it's a mistake to make Clinton's' past sex scandals a major focus and that many women will recoil at the suggestion that Hillary Clinton was an "enabler," as Trump has called her.

“I understand exactly what they’re saying, but I was attacked and I said: ‘How can they attack me when he’s got one of the worst records in history with all he’s gone through?'” Trump said. “So I hit him pretty hard and maybe they won’t be attacking me anymore ’cause, you know, I am somebody that has great respect for women and I’ll do a great job, far better for women than Hillary will ever do for women.”

The comments come the same day Trump released a new Instagram video, with a message on Twitter and Instagram saying "Hillary and her friends!" It splices images of Hillary Clinton and Bill Cosby and Clinton and Anthony Weiner, the former New York congressman who was embroiled in a sexting scandal. Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, a long-time aide to Clinton.

Cosby has been accused by more than 50 women of sexual assault stretching back decades and was recently charged for an alleged 2004 assault. After the Cosby photo is shown, text is displayed that says "true defender of women's rights."