In a time when a new celebrity, Hollywood or otherwise, seems to have their careers melt away in an instant because of an allegation of sexual harassment, one moment that has been strangely overlooked in recent weeks is Donald Trump's infamous Access Hollywood tape. While answering questions from then-host Billy Bush, Trump admitted to making unwanted sexual advances towards several women, including his statement that powerful men could grab a woman "by the p***y" without there being consequences. Now, a new report from The New York Times is claiming that Trump believes the video is a fake.
The President apparently told some of his constituents that the Access Hollywood feature may have been doctored in some way. In other words, he doesn't think that the voice in the footage is actually his. Check out the full passage form the NYT article below.
He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous Access Hollywood tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently.
This is a curious turn of events for a few reasons. Firstly, after the tape was originally leaked in October of 2016, he stated that the voice on the tape was in fact his and that he did in fact say what is heard on the tape, though he later tried to downplay those remarks as simply "locker room talk." Second, this comes on the heels of Trump's consistent defense of Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has had sexual harassment accusations leveled against him over the past week. The fact that Donald Trump is now trying to make his Access Hollywood incident seem like a fabrication is carrying an odor of political desperation that can be detected by those on either side of the aisle.
Do you believe that Trump's remarks were doctored? Or is he just trying to backpedal? Sound off in the comments.
