'Access Hollywood' vs. now: How the GOP learned to stand behind Trump: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, senior political editor Mark Murray compares the GOP’s response to Donald Trump's guilty verdict to its responses to the “Access Hollywood” tape in 2016. Plus, senior political reporters Jonathan Allen and Matt Dixon gauge the political fallout from the hush money trial.

'Access Hollywood' vs. now: How the GOP learned to stand behind Trump: From the Politics Desk

By Mark Murray

Almost eight years ago, key figures in the Republican Party distanced themselves from Donald Trump after the “Access Hollywood” video revealed him making lewd and aggressive comments about women.

Then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., disinvited Trump from a campaign event. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked him to step down as the GOP nominee. And then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, withdrew his endorsement.

“I’m out. I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president. It is some of the most abhorrent and offensive comments that you can possibly imagine,” Chaffetz said in October 2016.

Then Trump won the presidency just a month later.

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Since then — after two impeachments, a 2020 presidential defeat and multiple indictments — today’s Republican Party has learned to stand 100% behind Trump when it is faced with bad news about its former president and current presumptive presidential nominee.

Indeed, the reaction from Republican elected officials and candidates for office after Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges in the New York hush money trial was overwhelmingly