William Cummings

USA TODAY

Republican nominee Donald Trump continued to dismiss the sexually aggressive comments he was caught making during a 2005 taping of Access Hollywood as "locker room talk" and said, "it will pretty sad" if those remarks cost him the election.

"If that’s what it is going to take to lose an election, that will be pretty sad," Trump told Fox's BIll O'Reilly Tuesday in his first interview since the second presidential debate. "Then I have to go back to my other life, but I’ll tell you what, I think we’re going to win the election, Bill. I think we’re going to win the election. People are tired of Obama and they are tired of Clinton.”

Trump seemed to dismiss the notion that the recorded comments that surfaced Friday were hurting him among women voters.

"Well, first of all: locker room talk. And most people have heard it before," Trump said on The O'Reilly Factor. "I've had a lot of women come up to me and say, 'Boy, I've heard that, and I've a lot worse than that over my life."

Trump also said "I'm not sure I believe it" about polls that showed him trailing among women voters. He feels his campaign is focusing on the issues that women really care about.

"What women want is they want secure borders," Trump said. "They want safety. They want law and order. They want a police department that’s allowed to do its job."

O'Reilly asked Trump what he meant when he tweeted that "the shackles had been taken off" after House Speaker Paul Ryan announced he would no longer defend or campaign with Trump.

"What are you gonna do that you haven't done? Are you going to be more outspoken?" he asked.

“I don’t think I’m that outspoken to be honest with you, Bill," Trump said. "I think I’m not outspoken at all. I think I’ve been very nice."

"The shackles are some of the establishment people that are weak and ineffective people within the Republican party," Trump replied. "I think I'm better off without their support if you want to know the truth," he said of the Republicans who have turned on him since the taped comments became public.

Trump declares war on establishment Republicans

Trump expressed particular contempt for Ryan, saying he "was being nasty to the nominee" and Arizona Sen. John McCain who he couldn't believe was offended by his sexual comments about women.

"He easily wins his primary and then all of a sudden he does the unendorsement thing. Give me a break," Trump said. "He’s never heard salty language before. John McCain who has probably the dirtiest mouth in all of the Senate."

"I wouldn't want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people, including Ryan," Trump said. "Especially Ryan."

As for Sunday's debate, which "virtually everybody other than some crooked polls said that we won," Trump took issue with reports that he wandered around the stage and got into Clinton's space.

"I never walked near her," he said. "I was at my lectern and all of a sudden she walks over to me, stands right in front of me and the next day I read that I was in her space."

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