Donald Trump stood behind the infamous comments he made on the 2005 Access Hollywood tape and says he won’t take them back.
CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins pressed him about the infamous “catch ’em by the p****” tape that came up during the rape and libel trial against E. Jean Carroll.
A New York jury found Tuesday that the former president sexually assaulted and defamed the writer after she accused him of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman bathroom in 1996.
She was awarded $5 million in damages in a case Trump said was part of a “witch hunt.”
It came during a tense town hall where Trump called Collins a “nasty person,” declined to say he lost to Joe Biden in 2020, and called January 6 a “nice day.”
“There was a taped statement of yours from October, and you defended the comments you made on that ‘Access Hollywood’ tape about being able to grab women any way you want. Stand by those comments,’ Collins asked.
Donald Trump stood behind the infamous comments he made on the 2005 Access Hollywood tape and says he won’t take them back
CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins urged him on the infamous “grab ’em by the p****” tape that emerged during E. Jean Carroll’s rape and libel trial
“I said women let you, I didn’t say grab… I said women let you — you know, you didn’t use that word — but when you look, women let you in,” Trump said. “Now, they said, do you want to take that back? I said, look, this has been going on for a million years.
“I want to be honest, this is how it has been,” he added. “You’d like me to take that back. I can’t take it back because it happens to be true,” Trump added.
The comments came after Collins also pressured Trump over Tuesday’s New York verdict that found him liable for the sexual assault of Carroll during a department story in the 1990s. Trump has denied the accusation. City Hall marked his first public appearance since the verdict, where he was ordered to pay $5 million in damages.
“What do you say to voters who say that makes you ineligible to be president?” Collins asked him.
“It wasn’t too many because my numbers just — they went up,” Trump said as the audience cheered and applauded.
“I want to be honest, this is how it has been,” he added. “You’d like me to take that back. I can’t take it back because it happens to be true,” Trump added while commenting on the tape
The former president reiterated his claim that he didn’t know Carroll and then repeatedly insulted her — accusing her of being “hanky panky,” claiming she had a cat named “Vagina,” and calling her husband a “monkey.” He denounced U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who had been appointed to this position by President Bill Clinton.
“This woman, I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is. I had a picture taken years ago with her and her husband, nice guy John Johnson. He was a newsreader, very nice. She called him a monkey, African American happened to be. Called him a monkey,” Trump claimed.
“The judge wouldn’t let us put that in there. Her dog or cat was called Vagina, the judge wouldn’t allow it to be put in,” he added.
“We had a horrible Clinton-appointed judge. He allowed her to put everything in there,” he said.
Trump also said of Carroll, “What kind of woman meets someone and brings them up and within minutes you’re playing handkerchiefs in a locker room, I don’t know if she was married or not at the time.” John Johnson, I feel sorry for you.
The 70-minute City Hall was tense from the start, racing from topic to topic at breakneck speed. Neither Trump nor Collins — who was famous for sparring when he was president and she a White House reporter — didn’t give an inch and repeatedly went back and forth on a number of topics.
The two even rose from their seats to face each other head-on after a clash of Trump claims and Collins snapbacks made for fiery TV. Voters in the room didn’t get a chance to ask many questions amid the two’s tête-à-tête.
Biden took a swipe at Trump after the event, posting on Twitter, “Do you want four more years of that?”
Trump lost patience with Collins when she pressed him for why he classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Florida, calling her an “annoying person.”
The former president argued that he was allowed to have the documents under the Presidential Records Act.
“That’s not what the Presidential Record Act says,” Collins said, adding that she’s read the entire act.
Trump then claimed that Barack Obama and Joe Biden had documents – Obama did not. Biden handed over his when he found them.
“They didn’t raid Joe Biden’s house, they didn’t raid Obama,” Trump said.
Collins pressed him, telling him that Biden was not ignoring a subpoena on the matter as Trump did, asking him why he had not turned over the requested material.
‘Can I talk? Are you ready?,” Trump said during her aggressive questioning.
“I’d like you to answer the question. That’s why I asked,” Collins said.
“You’re a mean person, I’ll tell you,” Trump told her.
Collins ignored his insult and told him, “Can you specify why you held the documents?”
Their wild exchange continued as Collins pressed him, “Do you have any classified documents?”
“Are you ready?” Trump asked her.
“Will you?” she pressed.
“No, no, I have no classified documents,” he said, but added, “They will be released automatically if I take them.”
He also argued that he had every right to take them.