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‘We Are Moving On’: Melania Trump Breaks Near Silence to Defend Husband ‘We Are Moving On’: Melania Trump Breaks Near Silence to Defend Husband
(about 2 hours later)
Two months after she was humiliated when she delivered a plagiarized speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Melania Trump emerged from near-total silence to defend her husband during the worst stretch of his candidacy, calling his behavior toward women “inappropriate” but adding, “We are moving on.” Three months after she was humiliated when she delivered a plagiarized speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Melania Trump emerged from near-silence Monday to defend her husband during the worst stretch of his candidacy, saying “he was egged on” by a television personality to boast about forcing himself on women.
Ms. Trump faced a firestorm of criticism when her convention speech lifted lines from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention, and she has been absent from the campaign trail since, save for appearances at the first two general election debates. Ms. Trump’s remarks justifying her husband’s comments to Billy Bush, then an anchor of “Access Hollywood,” come as the Trump campaign has turned to her as its latest weapon to rescue Donald J. Trump’s candidacy among increasingly skeptical female voters.
But on Monday, she broke from weeks of avoiding interviews, saying that an “Access Hollywood” recording of her husband, Donald J. Trump, bragging about sexual assault was “not the man that I know” and that former President Bill Clinton’s history with women was fair game. It was “boy talk, and he was led on — like, egged on — from the host to say dirty and bad stuff,” she said in an interview with CNN.
The campaign’s decision to deploy Ms. Trump as a character witness for her embattled husband came as top aides have struggled how to respond to reports that Mr. Trump forced himself on several women and the emergence of the “Access Hollywood” tape. This past weekend, the campaign began discussing options for showcasing Ms. Trump publicly, leading to the two interviews she gave, one to Fox News and one to CNN. Mr. Trump’s poll numbers with women are perilously low, as he faces a historic gender gap. For many weeks, Mr. Trump’s aides had hoped that his wife would be able to help present a softer face for the razor-edged candidate.
In the interview with the Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt, from which excerpts were released on Monday afternoon, she expressed dismay with her husband’s words. But Ms. Trump has never enjoyed the political stage, even before her tarnished convention appearance, when she faced a firestorm of criticism for lifting lines from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention. She has been absent from the campaign trail since, save for appearances at the first two general election debates, and has been spending time with the couple’s young son, Barron.
“Those words, they were offensive to me and they were inappropriate,” Ms. Trump said. “And he apologized to me.” She said she had accepted his apology. “We are moving on,” she said. But on Monday, she broke from weeks of avoiding interviews, saying that an “Access Hollywood” recording of her husband bragging about groping women was “not the man that I know” and that former President Bill Clinton’s history with women was fair game.
Ms. Trump, the Manhattan businessman’s third wife, issued a statement a day after the tape was initially aired, and she said she was offended. That weekend, aides to Mr. Trump, as well as his adult children, urged Ms. Trump to promptly agree to a joint sit-down interview with her husband. But she had little interest in it, and the idea died. In the recording, Mr. Trump bragged in lewd terms that he could take advantage of women sexually because he was “a star.”
“Those words, they were offensive to me and they were inappropriate,” Ms. Trump said in a separate interview with the Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt. “And he apologized to me.”
Ms. Trump said she had accepted his apology. “We are moving on.”
The campaign’s decision to deploy Ms. Trump as a character witness for her embattled husband came as top aides have struggled with how to respond not only to the “Access Hollywood” tape but also to the subsequent emergence of several women who said that Mr. Trump forced himself on them. This weekend, the campaign began discussing options for showcasing Ms. Trump publicly, leading to the two interviews she gave, to Fox News and CNN.
Ms. Trump, Mr. Trump’s third wife, issued a statement a day after the tape was initially aired, and she said she was offended. That weekend, aides to Mr. Trump, as well as his adult children, urged Ms. Trump to agree to a sit-down interview with her husband. But she had little interest in it, and the idea died.
In the Fox interview, she made clear she was standing by her husband, and attributed the comments to behavior from an entertainer who was not a politician. “This is not the man that I know,” she said.In the Fox interview, she made clear she was standing by her husband, and attributed the comments to behavior from an entertainer who was not a politician. “This is not the man that I know,” she said.
“We could see, as I always said, as my husband said, as well, for a successful businessman, entrepreneur, entertainer to achieving so much in his life, being in so many shows, so many tapes, it’s very hard to run for public office. And he did this anyway,” she said. “He said, ‘I want to help American people. I want to keep America safe. I want to bring back jobs, bring back economy, so our children, our futures will be the best way possible.’” “For a successful businessman, entrepreneur, entertainer to achieving so much in his life, being in so many shows, so many tapes, it’s very hard to run for public office. And he did this anyway,” she said. “He said, ‘I want to help American people. I want to keep America safe. I want to bring back jobs, bring back economy, so our children, our futures will be the best way possible.’”
Ms. Trump’s emergence comes as the campaign has been bleeding the support of female voters, putting him further behind Hillary Clinton in national and swing-state polling. And it was unclear if her remarks would help change her husband’s political fortunes. But in the CNN interview, with Anderson Cooper, Ms. Trump explained away the offending remarks, suggesting her husband did not know he was being recorded. “As you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on — it was only a mike,” she said. “And I wonder if they even knew that the mike was on.”
Mr. Trump said at the second presidential debate against Mrs. Clinton in St. Louis that the “Access Hollywood” tape represented “locker-room talk.” When pressed by one of the moderators, Anderson Cooper of CNN, Mr. Trump insisted he had never actually engaged in such lewd behavior, an assertion undercut by the women who subsequently came forward. At his debate with Hillary Clinton last week, Mr. Trump insisted under questioning by Mr. Cooper that he had never actually engaged in the lewd behavior he bragged about in the “Access Hollywood” tape, an assertion undercut by the women who subsequently came forward.
Mr. Trump has vehemently denied the claims of his female accusers, calling them part of a conspiracy led partly by media outlets, particularly CNN and The New York Times. Yet despite Mr. Trump’s criticism of CNN and its reporting, Ms. Trump still selected Mr. Cooper to interview her. Mr. Trump has vehemently denied the claims of his accusers, calling them part of a conspiracy led partly by news media outlets, particularly CNN and The New York Times. Yet despite Mr. Trump’s criticism of CNN and its reporting, Ms. Trump still selected Mr. Cooper to interview her on Monday.
Before the debate, Mr. Trump hosted three women who have accused Mr. Clinton of sexual assault or rape in the past at a news conference, and he gave them tickets to sit in the debate hall. Before the debate, Mr. Trump held a news conference with three women who have accused Mr. Clinton of sexual assault or rape in the past, and he gave them tickets to sit in the debate hall.
Asked whether it is fair to bring up Mr. Clinton’s past, Ms. Trump said, “Well, if they bring up my past, why not?” Asked whether it was fair to bring up Mr. Clinton’s past, Ms. Trump said, “Well, if they bring up my past, why not?” She was alluding to a television ad run during the Republican Party’s nominating fight that featured a nude photo spread from Ms. Trump’s days as a supermodel.
Sounding a note of retribution similar to her husband’s, Ms. Trump said: “They’re asking for it. They started.” Ms. Trump’s remarks were released as her husband was appearing in Wisconsin, the home state of the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, who recently said he would no longer defend the Republican nominee and was solely focused on keeping control of the House.
She alluded to a television ad by a “super PAC” that was against Mr. Trump in the primaries, which featured a nude photo spread by Ms. Trump from her days as a supermodel. The two men occupy polar ends of the party, with Mr. Trump all angry populism, and Mr. Ryan, the highest elected Republican official, fashioning himself a man of policies and ideas.
“They started from the — from the beginning of the campaign putting my — my picture from modeling days,” she said. “That was my modeling days, and I’m proud what I did. I worked very hard.” Mr. Trump’s public and private demeanor have grown increasingly aggressive and erratic as he has slipped in the polls in recent weeks; several national polls in the past week have found Mrs. Clinton with a widening lead over Mr. Trump among likely voters.
In Twitter messages and at his rallies, Mr. Trump has increasingly warned — with no evidence — that the election will be “rigged” or “stolen,” frequently implying that black voters are the likely culprits, even as leaders and officials from both parties have come forward to refute his claims.
Rather than following the more conventional path for a presidential nominee with just three weeks until Election Day, or trying to woo and persuade undecided, independent and politically moderate voters, Mr. Trump has instead retrenched, refocusing on a strategy from the primaries of roiling his base.
He appears to be hoping to turn out his core supporters with a feverish, angry message, while simultaneously so damaging Mrs. Clinton — by dredging up her husband’s past sexual infidelities, which he accuses her of enabling — that Democratic turnout is depressed.