Melania Trump on Saturday said her husband used “unacceptable and offensive” language in a newly unearthed recording that has provoked condemnation from the presidential candidate’s family and fellow Republicans with little more than a month until Election Day.
Mrs. Trump’s remarks were delivered through a statement released by her husband’s presidential campaign Saturday afternoon roughly 24 hours after controversy erupted upon publication of a 2005 recording that captured the businessman making vulgar remarks about women.
“The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me,” she said in the statement. “This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world. “
Mr. Trump apologized in the form of a video statement released earlier Saturday morning several hours after the previously published audio emerged, first in the Washington Post, insisting the remarks don’t reflect the person he is today and calling the leak “nothing more than a distraction.”
“I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them,” Mr. Trump said.
Those comments were captured by microphones when Mr. Trump taped an appearance on the television show “Access Hollywood” in 2005.
“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Mr. Trump said in the tape. “Grab them by the p—y. You can do anything.”
The taping occurred within months of Mr. Trump marrying his current and third wife, a businesswoman and former model.
Mrs. Trump’s remarks came Saturday afternoon amid a wider outrage apparent across the GOP following the release of the years’ old recording. Several Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate have rescinded their support for Mr. Trump since Friday, while others have called on his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, to take the ticket’s top slot.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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