Paul Ryan's last tweet was about protecting victims of sexual assault

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

On Friday afternoon, The Washington Post released audio of Donald Trump discussing women with then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush in 2005. In the conversation — which you can listen to here — Trump tells Bush about how when it comes to beautiful women, he's "like a magnet," and sometimes he just starts kissing them. "I don't even wait," Trump is heard saying. "And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."

Trump issued a statement Friday dismissing his conversation as "locker room banter," though he did apologize if anyone took offense. But many have been quick to point out that his comments describing how he interacts with women are mighty close to the definition of sexual assault:

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Trump is scheduled to appear alongside House Speaker Paul Ryan on Saturday, in Ryan's first joint campaign event with the party nominee he has been slow to embrace. Just an hour before the Post published its story, Ryan tweeted this:

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Ryan has yet to issue a statement on Trump's remarks, though Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton called them "horrific."

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.