William Cummings

USA TODAY

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that NBC releasing the Access Hollywood tape in which he makes aggressive sexual comments about women was "certainly illegal, no question about it."

Trump told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in an interview Thursday that, "it was locker room talk, the microphone was not supposed to be on — not that I make that as an excuse for myself, but certainly it was an illegal act."

Trump did not rule out the possibility of legal action against the network. "You know that was a private dressing room. Yeah, that was certainly illegal, no question about it."

In the recording, Trump can be heard telling host Billy Bush that because of his celebrity he is able to grope and kiss women. When he sees attractive women, "I just start kissing them," Trump says in the recording. "It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”

The GOP nominee also repeated his assertion that the "system is rigged." He cited what he sees as media bias and inaccurate polls as evidence of a conspiracy against him. He also repeated a claim he made earlier Thursday that voters in Texas were reporting that their votes were being "flipped."

"A lot of calls were made from Texas — an incredible place I love Texas," Trump said. "The lines were massive and they were talking about flipping. You know, where they press a button and they press it for me and another name comes named Crooked Hillary Clinton."

Trump was unable to provide any concrete evidence that this was occurring other than calls he said were made to Fox.

Trump: ‘We have nobody to protect our workers’