Just two days before the second presidential debate took place, “The Washington Post” released a video captured on tape by the television program “Access Hollywood”, recording a conversation between Billy Bush and Donald Trump on the set of “Days of Our Lives” in 2005. Trump was recorded making lewd comments about women, describing sexual assault as one of the many perks of being a celebrity. He explained to Bush a scenario in which he made sexual advances on a married woman who promptly rejected him, although it is unclear when these events took place, and whether he was married at the time.
“I moved on her, and I failed, I’ll admit it,” Trump says in the video. “I did try and **** her. She was married,” he continues, “and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I moved on her like a *****, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony **** and everything. She’s totally changed her look.” He was then interrupted by Bush pointing out Arianne Zucker, the actress tasked with giving the two a tour of the set, “I’ve got to 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,” Trump says casually. “You can do anything… Grab them by the *****; you can do anything,” he says, before stepping out to meet Zucker.
In response to the video, Trump released a statement saying, “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.” “Access Hollywood” has declined a statement. Former Secretary of State, and current Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, tweeted about the video, claiming, “This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president.” Several other political figures took to Twitter with the same response, including Senator Tim Kaine; Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood; house speaker, Paul D. Ryan; Senator Kelly Ayotte; Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, and even former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Michelle Obama spoke out against the lewd comments, “This is not something that we can ignore, it is not something we can sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season…Because this was not a lewd conversation, this was not just locker room banter. This was a powerful individual, speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior.”
During the debate itself, Trump drew the criticism of Anderson Cooper, who repeatedly asked about the nature of Trump’s comments. Trump was later accused of dodging the question, forcing Cooper to ask a total of four times if he had ever committed sexual assault. Launching into a tirade about ISIS, foreign threats, and border control, he repeatedly apologized for his statements, however, every apology was followed by a “but”. It seemed to many that Trump was concerned with changing the subject, ending his speech with, “We need to get on to much more important and bigger things.”
Despite his best efforts to divert the allegations, the American people are finding it harder and harder to ignore his questionable past in regards to sex crimes. In 1989, Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump, accused him, under oath, of violently attacking her and raping her in a fit of rage. She later went back on her statement, claiming she didn’t mean rape in a “literal or criminal sense,” although many suspect, without confirmation, that in their divorce settlement, she agreed to take back her deposition for a sum of money. Almost eight years later, in 1997, Jill Harth, a business associate of Trump, accused him of forcibly groping her in his daughter’s bedroom, and accused him of attempted rape. She has publicly demanded an apology, yet the Republican Candidate has repeatedly called her accusations “meritless.” In 2016, a woman came forward, referring to herself as “Jane Doe” to protect her anonymity in the public eye, and accused Trump of raping her in 1994, when she was only 13 years old. Even with two eyewitness, both under pseudonyms, the Republican Candidate still brands the accusations as false. A federal judge recently set a date for the hearing of the lawsuit Jane Doe filed, accusing Trump of underage rape.
The incredibly serious implications of the potential president are lost on nobody, and despite the numerous accusations and recent surfacing of the “Access Hollywood” video, Trump still stands strong in his argument that he hasn’t done anything wrong. With November’s election just around the corner, it seems American citizens will be the judge of that.