President-elect Donald Trump ‘s 2016 presidential race almost came to a screeching halt when The Washington Post released the damning 2005 Access Hollywood footage . During the conversation captured on a hot microphone, Trump was taken off guard as he boasted in obscene language about kissing, groping, and attempting to have sex with women. Additionally, he claimed that “when you’re a star, they let you do it.” According to Newsweek , years later, during the hush money trial, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen revealed that Melania Trump was in charge of damage control and gave the contentious video a “locker room” spin.
“The spin that he wanted put on it was that this is locker room talk, something that Melania had recommended, or at least he told me that’s what Melania had thought, and use that to take control over the story to minimize its impact over him and his campaign,” Cohen testified in court . The Republican leader acted on his wife’s advice and refuted the allegations stating that the recording did not adequately depict his treatment of women. During a 2016 exclusive with CNN ‘s Anderson Cooper, Melania dismissed the whole situation and labeled it as ‘boy talk’.
“I believe my husband. I believe my husband,” she said. “This was all organized by the opposition. And with the details did they ever check the background of these women? They don’t have any facts.” Melania admitted that she had never heard this kind of vulgar talk from her husband before. “No. No, that’s why I was surprised because I said like I don’t know that person that would talk that way, and that he would say that kind of stuff in private,” the former model said.
“I heard many different stuff – boys talk,” she continued to defend Trump. “The boys, the way they talk when they grow up and they want to sometimes show each other, ‘Oh, this and that’ and talking about the girls. But yes, I was surprised, of course.” “And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on – it was only a mic. And I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on,” she said, referring to NBC’s host Billy Bush. She asserted that Trump was led on to make those controversial statements, “they were engaged in boy talk, and he was led on – like, egged on – from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.”
Newly released video shows Donald Trump seeming to stand by the infamous Access Hollywood tape. Lawyer: “It’s true with stars that they can grab women by the pussy?” Trump: “If you look over the last million years … that’s been largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.” pic.twitter.com/JQISnZ7N6A
— The Recount (@therecount) May 5, 2023
Melania went on to claim that Trump was caught in a ‘web of lies’ and he had the right to defend himself. “He’s raw. He will say it as he feels it. So you know, I know he respects women,” she clarified. The former first lady also confessed that she had forgiven her husband for his actions. “I accept his apology. I hope the American people will accept it as well. And it was many, many years ago. He’s not the man that I know,” she concluded. As per the latest NBC News reports, the president-elect’s attempt to overturn his guilty verdict on the grounds of presidential immunity was turned down by the New York judge Juan Merchan who oversaw the hush money trial . “This court does not agree,” he wrote.
