Trump On Grabbing P****

I’m absolutely horrified that so many Americans are planning to vote for Donald Trump. I’ve felt this way for a while now, but it’s only getting worse. Today, tape surfaced of Trump making appalling, horrifying, disgusting comments about women—I’m running out of adjectives here—while speaking privately on a mic back in 2005. Trump’s past comments about women ought to have disqualified him from seeking the presidency a long time ago. How they haven’t is completely baffling to me.

From the Washington Post, Trump’s “extremely lewd” conversation:

Donald Trump bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone — saying that “when you’re a star, they let you do it” — according to a video obtained by The Washington Post.

The video captures Trump talking with Billy Bush of “Access Hollywood” on a bus with Access Hollywood written across the side. They were arriving on the set of “Days of Our Lives” to tape a segment about Trump’s upcoming cameo on the soap opera.

First Trump described trying to seduce a married woman:

“I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it,” Trump is heard saying. It was unclear when the events he was describing took place. The tape was recorded several months after he married his third wife, Melania.

“Whoa,” another voice said.

“I did try and f— her. She was married,” Trump says.

Trump 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 bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married,” Trump says. “Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”

Then they noticed the actress Trump was to appear opposite:

“Your girl’s hot as s—, in the purple,” says Bush, who’s now a co-host of NBC’s “Today” show.

“Whoa!” Trump says. “Whoa!”

“I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump says. “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. “You can do anything.”

“Whatever you want,” says another voice, apparently Bush’s.

“Grab them by the p—y,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”

As Vox pointed out, these comments aren’t just lewd, they describe sexual assault.

I cannot for the life of me understand who someone as casually and appalling sexist as Trump got anywhere near his position, in 2016. This isn’t 1960 anymore, after all. It’s not 1992 either. It’s 2016. How has Trump responded?

“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,” Trump said in a statement. “I apologize if anyone was offended.”

This is deflection at its finest. Note that Trump doesn’t apologize for his words themselves. Instead, he apologizes “if anyone was offended.” That’s not the same thing as acknowledging that it was wrong to say those things. In fact, Trump’s statement suggests that he doesn’t think he was wrong to say what he did—it was “locker-room banter,” he explains. And then he imagines for a moment that he’s running against Bill Clinton. Or something.

I’ve been wondering whether Trump’s comments on tape may hurt his position among evangelicals. It’s hard to imagine my parents voting for someone who talks so freely about grabbing women by the p****, or about attempting to seduce married women. It may actually be to shore up his support among evangelicals that Trump mentioned Bill Clinton—he’s reminding evangelicals that they have a choice between him and a woman whose husband was the most infamous adulterer of the 1990s.

Still, Trump’s comments about women have been dogging him for some time. Trump did an interview about the way he talks about women earlier this week, even before this particular tape came out:

Trump has been criticized in this campaign for derogatory and lewd comments about women, including some made on TV and live radio. In an interview Wednesday with KSNV, a Las Vegas television station, Trump said that those comments were made for entertainment.

“A lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment. There’s nobody that has more respect for women than I do,” he told the station.

The conversation from the 2005 tape took place in private. Perhaps he Trump means he says those things to boost his playboy image, or his to undergird his masculinity? If so, his desired image and his view of masculinity are toxic. And that is perhaps what Trump doesn’t understand—his critics don’t care whether he “meant” those things (though I seriously think he did). His critics are concerned that he was willing to say those things, regardless of his reasons for doing so. The thought of my daughter growing up in Trump’s America fills me with rage.