Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, a close ally of Donald Trump, claimed that the Republican nominee’s remarks in a tape released on Friday did not constitute sexual assault. “I don’t characterize that as sexual assault,” Sessions told The Weekly Standard of a tape in which Trump crudely discussed grabbing women by their genitals. When pressed further, Sessions said: “I don’t know. It’s not clear that he—how that would occur.” Since the tape came out Trump has seen in a significant drop in support and the abandonment of numerous Republican leaders.