Crowds of Donald Trump supporters and protesters swarmed Trump Tower in Chicago Tuesday morning.
Many of the demonstrators were from the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women, which describe themselves as a group dedicated to furthering feminist issues for the women in the city.
The rally comes after dozens of women from the same organization protested outside Trump Tower in New York City last a week, calling on the GOP to pull its endorsement of "sexual predator" Trump in the wake of a video leak that showed the Republican presidential nominee making denigrating comments about women more than a decade ago.
Sonia Ossorio, the group's president, called Trump a misogynist in an interview with NBC 5’s New York affiliate station and said the leaked tape makes women remember their experiences "of discomforting lewd comments, of knowing men are in the corner talking about you, of being groped."
Trump has played down his 2005 remarks, calling them the product of "locker-room banter." While he has apologized and said he was embarrassed, many felt his explanation trivialized a very real infraction.
The remarks have resonated on college campuses across the country, where groups of students say the comments undermine their efforts to encourage women who have been victimized by sexual assault to stand up and speak out.
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The demonstrations come as Trump's caught-on-tape remarks about kissing women and grabbing their genitals threaten an irreparable rift in the Republican party that insiders fear could jeopardize not just the presidential election, but control of Congress as well.
Forty Republican senators and congressmen have revoked their support for Trump — with nearly 30 of them calling on him to quit the race altogether in recent days. House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow lawmakers on Monday he would not campaign for or defend the businessman in the election's closing weeks. But the head of the Republican National Committee declared he was in full coordination with the embattled presidential nominee.
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