The Very Definition of Sexual Assault

Just when you would swear you'd seen everything this election cycle, a video surfaces of the Republican nominee gleefully describing how he uses his fame to grope and harass women.

"I just start kissing [beautiful women]. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait," a hot mic recorded Donald Trump saying in 2005, in a recording obtained by The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold. "And when you're a star they let you do it," Trump says. "You can do anything. … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

The entire repugnant video – which captures Trump talking to Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood," on the way to the set of "Days of Our Lives" for an upcoming guest appearance – is worth watching in full, as difficult to stomach as it is. Trump can also be heard bragging about trying to "f***" a married woman, to use his own terms. "I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn't get there. And she was married," he said. (It should be noted that this appears to have been recorded less than a year after he married his current wife, Melania Trump.)

Lest there be any doubt, this is the very definition of sexual assault. Trump is expressing his entitlement to women's bodies, and describing how he takes – kisses, grabs – what he wants from women when he wants it. You'd be hard pressed to come up with a more explicit description of sexual harassment.

The Trump campaign quickly issued a statement on the video, but even this nonapology is a reflection of the pervasiveness of rape culture. Trump attributed the remarks to "locker room banter," as if this is just how men talk to one another, as if boys will be boys, as if this is acceptable:

Of course, "the story of Donald Trump's misogyny is so old that if it were a person, Donald Trump probably would not date it," as The Daily Beast's Erin Gloria Ryan put it.

But this week has been spectacularly bad for Trump on the women front. On Monday, the Associated Press reported that on the set of "The Apprentice," Trump routinely leered at female contestants and even rated them by breast size. One former contestant said that Trump would eliminate male contestants who took offense at his treatment of women and frequent talk of sex on set. At his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump reportedly called on women he deemed unattractive to be fired, according to the Los Angeles Times. Staff began hiding these women when Trump was in town and scheduling only those Trump deemed the best looking to work in his presence.

All these reports come on the heels of Trump doubling and tripling down on his body-shaming of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. The man literally can't help himself.

The tape of Trump dropped the same day President Barack Obama signed the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, a historic provision that revises how rape kits are handled in federal court. The bill was a rare bipartisan victory – House Speaker Paul Ryan even tweeted in praise of its passage:

Ryan is slated to campaign for Trump on Saturday, in their first joint campaign appearance. It remains to be seen whether he'll come up with an excuse to bow out instead. Already this week, former Republican officials were speaking out en masse against their party's nominee.

But the revelations on this tape are something different: It's not mere words of misogyny; Trump is describing actual actions of sexual assault. Who with even an ounce of integrity could support him now?