Trump Tape Scandal: Amid GOP Chaos, More Lewd Tapes Emerge
For Donald Trump, despite his apology, the troubles are far from over.
Just a day after the Republican presidential nominee was heard making lewd and sexually charged remarks about women in a 2005 recording published by the Washington Post, CNN unearthed recordings of his various appearances on “The Howard Stern Show” in the 1990s and 2000s.
In a 2004 interview on the show, Trump can be heard discussing his daughter Ivanka’s looks, and when Stern asks if he can call her “a piece of a--,” Trump responds in the affirmative.
“She's actually always been very voluptuous,” Trump says during an October 2006 interview, when asked if Ivanka had gotten breast implants.
In a 2002 appearance on the show, he discusses dating younger women, calling 30 “a perfect age” and 35 “the check-out time.”
The new revelations come at a time when the Trump campaign is still struggling to control the fallout from the release of the 2005 recording in which he can be heard bragging about his desire to grab a woman's “p----.”
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump is heard saying in the recording. “You can do anything.”
After the recording was released, Trump responded with an apology, stating that he had “said and done things” he regretted, before launching into a tirade against Hillary and Bill Clinton.
“I’ve said some foolish things, but there is a big difference between words and actions. Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims,” the GOP presidential nominee said in the video released Saturday.
Trump’s wife Melania also defended her husband, even as she labelled his remarks “unacceptable and offensive.”
“This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader,” she said in a statement. “I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world.”
Trump’s apology, however, has done little to sate Republican Party officials. Even as calls grow for Trump to step aside and let his running mate Mike Pence take his place, several GOP lawmakers withdrew their support.
Former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, for instance, said that neither he, nor his wife Cindy, would vote for Trump.
“I have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate and we will not vote for Hillary Clinton,” McCain said in a statement. “We will write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be President.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran against Trump in the GOP primary, also denounced Trump, stating that he “cannot and should not support” Trump.
“Nothing that has happened in the last 48 hours is surprising to me or many others,” he said in a Facebook statement Saturday. “The actions of the last day are disgusting, but that’s not why I reached this decision, it has been an accumulation of his words and actions that many have been warning about. I will not vote for a nominee who has behaved in a manner that reflects so poorly on our country.”
Even Pence said Saturday he “cannot defend” Trump’s remarks.
“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. “I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. I am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologized to the American people.”
Trump, however, remained unfazed.
In two separate interviews with the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, he said there was “zero chance” that he’d quit.
“I haven’t heard from anyone saying I should drop out, and that would never happen, never happen,” Trump told the Times. “That’s not the kind of person I am. I am in this until the end.”
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