When Amanda Litman first heard the words, When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab em by the pussy, she was at Hillary Clintons campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.

It was Oct. 7, 2016, a Friday afternoon, and The Washington Post published a bombshell: Donald Trump , then the Republican presidential nominee, had boasted about sexual assault in 2005. And it was on tape.

It was almost a feeling of oh my god, we just won the election, complicated by the fact that so many of the women on our staff were deeply traumatized, Litman said. She remembers female staffers listening to the audio over and over again, then leaving the office for 10-minute walks around the block. When they came back, they looked as though they had been crying.

The audio, taken from an Access Hollywood shoot, seemed like a turning point in the election. Republican politicians quickly condemned Trump, many of them noting that as fathers of daughters, they had to speak up. Then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) reportedly urged the GOP chairman to get the nominee out of the race. Trumps daughter Ivanka reportedly pleaded with him to offer a full apology. Karen Pence, the wife of Trump running mate Mike Pence , was reportedly livid , but her husband decided it was too late to leave the ticket.

In the 20 days that followed, 15 women came forward to say Trump had sexually abused them. Democrats thought this might be their shot to cement the election for Clinton, who would have been the first female president in U.S. history.

But come November, Trump won nonetheless. The same Republican politicians who claimed they couldnt abide his words continued to back him. Then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who said after the tapes release that he couldnt look his 15-year-old daughter in the eyes and still endorse Trump, announced 19 days later that he still planned to vote for the nominee. Once Trump became president, Ryan and other Republicans helped push through his priorities, which they shared. Trump went on to appoint Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault, to the Supreme Court.

Four years later, the Access Hollywood tape is buried under Trumps record in office, including mishandling the coronavirus pandemic, dismantling the immigration system, derailing climate change efforts and much, much more. This September, when former model Amy Dorris accused Trump of sexually assaulting her at the 1997 U.S. Open, the charge was simply added to the list. Few, if any, Republicans spoke out, and the news cycle moved on.

But women havent forgotten. Activists and former Clinton staffers say that the Access Hollywood tape (and Republicans subsequent inaction) helped lay the groundwork for a seismic national shift in both the dialogue surrounding sexual abuse and the political mobilization of many women who had previously been passive observers.

Its one of the reasons why the Womens March was such a galvanizing thing, said Litman. [Trump] didnt just beat a woman candidate; he did so while denigrating women, which lays the cultural groundwork along with the work Tarana Burke had been doing for years for the Me Too movement.

At Least Hes Not Clinton

When David Fahrenthold, the Washington Post reporter who first uncovered the Access Hollywood tape, reached out to the Trump campaign before publishing, they at first thought the transcript wasnt real. This doesnt sound like me, Trump said, according to a retelling of the weekend by Politicos Tim Alberta.

Then the campaign received the audio, and it was clear that it was Trump speaking.

The campaign went into spin mode. This was locker-room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago, Trump said in a statement to the Post, before quickly turning to his opponents husband. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.

That non-apology didnt quell the public outrage after the story was published, and Trump appeared on video later that night to try again. In a markedly un-Trump-like performance, he said he never claimed to be a perfect person. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize, he said, before claiming the video was a distraction from the important issues were facing today and attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton for the former presidents sexual misconduct and alleged assaults, as well as accusing the former first lady of having bullied her husbands victims.

One person faced swift consequences: Billy Bush, the Access Hollywood host who laughed along with Trump on tape, was suspended from his job at the Today show and fired a week and a half later .

It looked like Trump might face consequences too.

Republican after Republican issued statements condemning him. As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump in the eleven-year-old video released yesterday, Pence said in a statement, notably emphasizing that the remarks were made a long time ago. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called Trumps comments repugnant, and unacceptable in any circumstance.