Washington: Strongly defending her husband Donald Trump over the tape controversy, Melania Trump has claimed that he was “egged on” to make the comments and played down as “boy talk” the Republican presidential candidate’s lewd remarks about women.
Melania backed Trump in her first interview since the Republican nominee faced allegations of sexual misconduct, calling those accusations “lies”.
“I said to my husband that, you know the language was inappropriate. It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know,” Melania, 46, told CNN yesterday.
“The two were engaged in ‘boy talk’, and he was led on, like egged on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff,” she said, referring to Trump and Billy Bush, the then “Access Hollywood” host.
“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.
The video, obtained by the Washington Post, captures Trump having an extremely lewd conversation about women with Bush.
It was after the emergence of the video that Trump’s presidential campaign has been jolted with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton taking a substantial lead over him in national opinion polls.
70-year-old Trump is also facing accusations of sexual assault and inappropriate touching, with as many as nine women coming out with allegations against him.
Most of these cases are three decades to five years old.
“I believe my husband. I believe my husband,” Melania said of the allegations.
“This was all organised from the opposition. And with the details…Did they ever check the background of these women? They don’t have any facts,” she said.
Melania also defended her husband over criticism of his remarks about his accusers’ looks — an implication that the women who have alleged his misconduct are not attractive enough to sexually assault.
“He’s raw. He will say it as he feels it. So you know, I know he respects women. But he’s defending himself because they’re lies,” she said.
Melania said she has not heard her husband saying those words that feature in the 2005 tape.
“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,” she said.
“I heard many different stuff, boys talk. 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,” she said.
PTI