Donald Trump said in an interview on Monday that he was just joking when he made demeaning comments toward women in the past.
Trump's comments — in which he degrades, ranks, and rates women — have been used against him by his opponents, even appearing in an attack ad from an anti-Trump super PAC. Trump has previously said he didn't recognize some of his own past comments and dismissed others as part of being in "show business."
He told a local Wisconsin television station on Monday that he was just joking.
"Well, number one, I'm no different than anybody else, and people joke, and I joke," Trump said in a phone interview with Wisconsin local FOX 11. "And I never knew I was going to be running for office. And you joke, and you kid and say things, but you're not a politician so you never think anybody cares."
"All of a sudden you decide because the country's doing so badly that you're going to run for office, and then they take every single thing that you've ever said over a lifetime," he continued. "Much of that I said in jest, much of that I said — although with the Fox debate, I didn't say that in jest at all. I said that 100% because Megyn Kelly never treated me fairly and everybody knows it. But you say things, and I guarantee you I'm no different, if anything I'm far better than the people I'm running against."
