Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump again dismissed as “locker room talk” the newly published lewd comments he made about women in a 2005 conversation,
“This was locker room talk,” Trump said during Sunday’s town hall-style presidential debate.
“I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people, but this is locker room talk,” Trump said, referring to a recording published Friday by the Washington Post, in which he boasted about sexually assaulting women and trying to seduce a married woman.
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump says in the recording. “You can do anything.” Republicans have condemned Trump’s remarks, and many have called for him to withdraw from the presidential race. Trump has said he would “never” do that.
“Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it, but it’s locker room talk,” Trump said on Sunday, adding that he has “great respect for women.”
“No one has more,” he said.
Trump then said he wants to move on to “much more important things and much bigger things,” including fighting ISIS.
Clinton fired back at Trump’s comments.
“What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women—what he thinks about women, what he does to women—and he has said that the video doesn’t represent who he is, but I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is,” she said.
“This is who Donald Trump is and the question for us, the question our country must answer, is that this is not who we are,” she added.