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Former Vice President Al Gore talks to the media after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Monday in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty Images hide caption

Former Vice President Al Gore talks to the media after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Monday in New York City.

In what may be the most unlikely meeting of the presidential transition process so far, former vice president, former Democratic presidential nominee, former senator and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore met with President-elect Donald Trump on Monday.

Gore has spent decades warning about the dire consequences of unchecked, man-made climate change, while Trump has regularly called climate change "a hoax" during the campaign.

Initially, the session was not even expected to include the president-elect. According to the transition spokesman, it was scheduled as a sit-down between Gore and Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who is a member of the official transition team. Ivanka Trump, 35, is also an executive with the Trump Organization, and Trump has described her as one of his most trusted advisers.

There was no preview of the agenda for the former vice president and the president-elect's daughter.

Politico reported last week that Ivanka, who is expected to play some of the social roles typically occupied by the first lady, is interested in making climate change one of her signature issues.

Since the election, she has met with actor and climate change activist Leonardo DiCaprio to discuss the issue, when he, according to the New York Times, gave her a copy of his documentary film on the topic.

A full 90 minutes after Gore entered Trump Tower, the golden elevator doors in Trump Tower's lobby opened and Gore emerged, according to pool reports.

In a very brief statement to reporters staking out the lobby, Gore revealed that he spent most of his time upstairs meeting with Trump himself.

"I had a lengthy and very productive session with the president-elect. It was a sincere search for areas of common ground," said Gore. "I had a meeting beforehand with Ivanka Trump. The bulk of the time was with the president-elect, Donald Trump. I found it an extremely interesting conversation, and to be continued, and I'm just going to leave it at that."

It's not clear exactly how Ivanka Trump's views on climate change differ from her father's and what influence she might have on him. He has proposed walking away from the 2015 Paris Agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. As a candidate, Trump championed the American coal industry, saying that environmental regulations had harmed the industry and cost the jobs of miners.

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Al Gore Meets With Donald And Ivanka Trump In Search For ...

Trump promised to withdraw from negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, cancel environmental restrictions put in place by President Barack Obama, ask his national security team to buttress against infrastructure attacks, have the Labor Department investigate federal worker visas and impose broad new bans on lobbying by government employees.

The six items Trump detailed Monday are all somewhat easy lifts inside Washington -- because they can be done with a simple signature by Trump and do not require congressional approval.

Unlike his items unveiled Monday, those measures would require the approval of Congress and are likely to take significantly more work.

Time and speed are very likely to be key factors as the new president looks for bigger, more durable wins in his first year. Republicans control the House and Senate, as well as the White House -- but Democrats struggled to pass key items, like Obamacare, when they were in a similar position eight years ago.

Republicans hold a firm majority in the House, but could struggle in the Senate, where Democrats will hold 48 seats next year, enough to blockade Trump measures.

Trump cast his measures as completely focused on American workers.

"Whether it's producing steel, building cars, or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland: America -- creating wealth and jobs for American workers," Trump said in the two-and-a-half-minute video statement. "As part of this plan, I've asked my transition team to develop a list of executive actions we can take on day one to restore our laws and bring back our jobs."

Among his first actions, the Republican said he would "issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Transpacific Partnership" and replace it with negotiating "fair bilateral trade deals."

Trump campaigned on a promise to halt the progress of the TPP trade deal, an agreement President Barack Obama had hoped would be a part of his administration's trade legacy.

Some of the first international reaction came from Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"The TPP without the United States is meaningless," he said during a press conference at the APEC summit in Peru on Monday.

"Renegotiation is possible, because the TPP without the United States will collapse the balance of the benefit," Abe said, according to a translator.

"As for the policy of the new US government, I don't want to discuss with any assumption."

On immigration, Trump promised to "investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker," but did not mention his signature campaign promise of building a wall along the US border with Mexico.

The items are all measures he broadly campaigned on, though Trump has begun moderating some of the toughest stances he took on the campaign trail. In an interview with "60 Minutes," he said that he would likely keep key portions of Obamacare.

And not long after his election win, his campaign took down the web page with his earlier promise to ban all Muslims from entering the country -- he has since moderated that view greatly, but left major questions on how precisely he would limit immigration.

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"The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities," Ryan's spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, said in a statement.

The move -- highly unusual in US political history -- laid bare the seemingly intractable divisions now seizing the Republican Party with a month left before the presidential vote. Support for Trump among the GOP establishment, already weak amid disagreements over policy and tone, has now eroded to new lows.

In a conference call with members Monday morning, Ryan told lawmakers, "you all need to do what's best for you and your district," according to someone who listened to the meeting.

"He will spend his entire energy making sure that Hillary Clinton does not get a blank check with a Democrat-controlled Congress," said the person on the call -- an implied acknowledgment that Trump no longer appears able to capture the White House.

Reaction to Ryan's decision illustrates the schism currently splitting the Republican Party. A person who listened to the call said the reaction wasn't entirely positive -- and that Ryan's comments angered more conservative GOP members who believed the speaker was essentially conceding the presidential contest to Clinton.

And later on Monday Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus reiterated his support for embattled GOP nominee Trump.

"Nothing has changed in regard with our relationship," Priebus said in a call with RNC committeemen. He said the Trump campaign and RNC are in full coordination.

Trump responded to the House speaker on Twitter Monday, saying Ryan should focus on other policy areas instead of fighting with the Republican nominee.

"Paul Ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee," Trump said.

At least eight members angrily pushed back at Ryan, saying the party needs to be united headed into November to keep the majority. One member, two sources on call said, pointedly told Ryan that the better Trump does in November, the better the House GOP will do.

"It's not rocket science," the member said.

Among the people who objected to Ryan: Rep. Billy Long of Missouri, a Trump supporter, Rep. Louis Gohmert of Texas, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California.

But Ryan did make clear that he would no longer provide proactive support for his party's presidential candidate. A source said the speaker would campaign in 17 states and 42 cities this month.

A spokesman for Trump's campaign, Jason Miller, tweeted after the news broke, "Nothing's changed. Mr. Trump's campaign has always been powered by a grassroots movement, not Washington."

A Trump campaign source told CNN the campaign has told members of Congress from the beginning to focus on winning their seats, even if that means abandoning Trump because the campaign wants as big a Republican majority as possible come January.

Ryan spokesman Zack Roday said the speaker "made it clear on the call he's not conceding the presidential race."

The speaker's actions in the aftermath of the lewd tape's release have been closely monitored given Ryan's initial reluctance to get behind Trump when he clinched the GOP nomination.

Dozens of fellow Republican lawmakers withdrew their support for Trump, many insisting he should withdraw from the race entirely. The defections came largely from Republican lawmakers facing tough re-election battles, including Sen. Kelly Ayotte. In the House, Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Trump should step aside.

Trump and Ryan were originally set to appear together in Wisconsin on Saturday. But Ryan rescinded his invitation after the new comments came to light. Over the weekend, his office remained largely quiet about how he would respond to the explosive reports about Trump's past behavior.

But on the call Monday, the message was unequivocal: Trump will no longer enjoy whatever political firepower Ryan could bring to the presidential race in its final stretch.

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Paul Ryan said he won't defend Donald Trump

Donald Trump's October Surprise is so explicit, shocking, offensive and vile that even he felt the need to apologize -- defiantly.

In a video released after midnight Saturday, Trump expressed regret for stunning comments that surfaced Friday about women.

"Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am," he said. "I said it. I was wrong. And I apologize."

"Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims," Trump said. "We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday."

Trump's candidacy has revealed a long history of demeaning and shaming women. But the comments that emerged Friday go further than anything that has been attributed to him before as he seemed to bask in the power he felt his celebrity conferred to do whatever he wanted with women.

The bombshell couldn't come at a worse time for Trump's campaign as he prepares for the next debate against Clinton. And Republicans must now decide whether to stand by him or cut him loose just 32 days before the election.

The debate, co-moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper, is especially crucial because Trump botched his first match with Clinton and then spent the next two weeks in a cycle of recrimination, denial and feud with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

The political uproar over the latest revelation was so momentous that it overtook coverage of a hurricane lashing Florida and a stunning US government accusation of a Russian hacking operation to disrupt the elections.

It has been one of the cliches of the 2016 presidential race that Trump can get away with comments and outrages that would sink any normal politician. But the video tests the limits of that assumption in a way unlike any of Trump's many previous controversies.

"I moved on her and I failed. I'll admit it," Trump said. "I did try and fuck her. She was married."

"I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn't get there. And she was married," Trump adds, after saying he took the woman -- who is identified only by her first name -- out furniture shopping.

"Then all of a sudden I see her, she's now got the big phony tits and everything. She's totally changed her look," Trump says of the woman.

Before Trump stepped off a bus, he and Bush appear to see a soap actress who greets them.

"Whoa!" Trump says. "I've gotta use some tic tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait."

"And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything," Trump says.

Trump advisers huddled in Trump Tower Friday night to plot a path forward. They clearly knew they had a problem on their hands when they moved quickly to release a statement that bizarrely blamed Bill Clinton after the Post published its story.

"This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended," Trump said.

There were signs that Trump's campaign was in disarray as some of his aides expressed exasperation in unusually blunt terms.

"It's appalling. It's just flat out appalling," a Trump adviser said.

The stunning developments are forcing a moment of reckoning for Republican Party leaders who have made a pact with a nominee many of them privately view as vulgar and unacceptable, and must now decide whether to cut him loose.

Trump was due to appear alongside Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker both pillars of the conservative movement on Saturday. Ryan didn't withdraw his endorsement of Trump Friday but he did condemn the nominee and said Trump will no longer attend the event.

"I am sickened by what I heard today," Ryan said in a statement. "Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests. In the meantime, he is no longer attending tomorrow's event in Wisconsin."

Every Republican office holder from GOP vice presidential pick Mike Pence who often calls Trump "this good man" -- to vulnerable senators running for re-election will now face the same question: How can you stand with a nominee who would say such a thing?

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican running for re-election who stumbled this week over the question of whether Trump represented a good role model for children, quickly condemned Trump's statement.

"His statements are totally inappropriate and offensive," Ayotte said.

Sen. Pat Toomey, a vulnerable Pennsylvania Republican, tweeted that Trump's comments were "outrageous and unacceptable."

Trump's possible implosion also appeared to validate the central theme of Clinton's campaign that a man like Trump with a colorful personal past, a life lived in the tabloids and a runaway mouth is simply not fit to be president.

Clinton and her top surrogates have been driving a narrative for months that the Republican nominee lacks the gravity, knowledge and character to sit in the Oval Office or to represent the United States overseas.

It was a case that appeared to be gaining traction given Trump's outspoken comments about Mexicans, women, Muslims and other sectors of society.

Trump's most loyal supporters sought to shrug off the latest controversy.

"We're not choosing a Sunday school teacher," Corey Lewandowski, Trump's former campaign manager who is now a CNN contributor, told Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." "We're electing a leader to the free world."

The controversy is likely to hammer Trump's standing among crucial demographics who may decide the election on November 8.

Trump had already busted established standards on rhetoric about women in this campaign, questioning last year after a tough debate whether moderator Megan Kelly was menstruating and having his words that some women were "pigs" and "slobs" thrown back at him by Clinton in the first debate.

But the revelations in the hot mic moment will surely doom any hope the GOP nominee has of improving his standing among women voters, especially highly educated, suburban women in swing states like Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine, campaigning in Las Vegas, said Trump's comments "makes me sick to my stomach."

Trump's aides across the country seemed to feel similarly.

Asked about the reaction at a campaign field office, a Trump field staffer told CNN there were "gasps. Collective gasps. We're trying to get our heads around it right now, but there's no way to spin this. There just isn't."

The staffer, who is also paying close attention to Senate efforts, also added, unsolicited: "Just think of the down-ballot effect. Brutal."

A GOP operative in Ohio voiced similar sentiments.

"This is bad. I think this thing is over," the staffer said.

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Can Donald Trump recover from this? - CNNPolitics.com

The videotape of Donald Trump that is shaking up the presidential election sat forgotten on a shelf at NBC's "Access Hollywood" until just a few days ago.

On Monday, according to an NBC source, one of the entertainment newsmagazine's producers remembered Trump's 2005 taping session with former "Access" co-host Billy Bush.

Trump's offensive comments about Alicia Machado were still making waves. And the Associated Press had just published a detailed story quoting former "Apprentice" employees saying Trump "was lewd and sexist" while taping the reality show.

With that in mind, a producer dug up the tape.

By mid-week, executive producer Rob Silverstein and his producing team had taken a look at its contents, and discovered that among other things it included a moment in which Trump told Bush, "And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

It also included Trump saying he once tried and failed to have sex with Nancy O'Dell, who was Bush's co-host at the time.

After reviewing the tape, "we were debating what to do" with it, an NBC source explained.

By Friday morning, Silverstein had decided to broadcast it, and a script had been written. The story was not slated to air on Friday night's edition of the show, however.

That means the earliest it would have aired is Monday night -- after Sunday's presidential debate.

Another NBC source confirmed that "Access" was working on a story, and that NBC News knew about it, but said that as of Friday morning the story "wasn't quite finalized."

That's when Silverstein was notified that David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post had come into possession of a copy.

Fahrenthold, who has been reporting for months on Trump's charitable donations and the Trump Foundation, was contacted around 11 a.m. on Friday by a source who told him about the footage, according to a Post story about how he got this scoop.

Fahrenthold asked NBC for comment about the tape around noon Eastern time. The producers at "Access," which is based in California, were blindsided by Fahrenthold's call.

According to the Post, Farenthold knows the identity of the person who leaked the video to him, but will not disclose it.

Sources at NBC believe someone inside NBC downloaded the footage from one of the network's video servers. The tape was accessible internally since the "Access" story was already in the works.

Silverstein told Page Six on Friday afternoon, "I don't know who leaked it. I have no idea."

After the Post called NBC for comment, NBC News staff hurried to finish a story about it. So did the "Access" staff.

On Friday night's edition of the newsmagazine, co-host Natalie Morales reported on the tape, linking it to Monday's investigation by The A.P.

Morales also noted that Trump has appeared on the show "hundreds of times" over the years.

"In the course of reporting on Mr. Trump, we have reviewed much of our own footage," she said.

So does "Access" have other tapes of Trump speaking in vulgar terms? One of the NBC sources said, "Not that I know of."

O'Dell and "Entertainment Tonight," the show she now co-anchors, both declined to comment. But Brad Bessey, the former executive producer of "Entertainment Tonight," said in a tweet that O'Dell is "is classy, beautiful, family-focused, intelligent & a great journalist. Above the sexist objectification of @realDonaldTrump."

CNNMoney (New York) First published October 7, 2016: 7:18 PM ET

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How the shocking hot mic tape of Donald Trump was exposed ...