In her first interview since the release of a 2005 video that captured her husband bragging about making unwanted sexual advances on women, Melania Trump defended her husband and said Monday she believed the GOP candidate had
been egged on.
The video of Donald Trump making vulgar comments about women, recorded on a bus that was taking him and former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush to the set of Days of Our Lives, has been a major problem for his presidential campaign.
In an interview she gave to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Melania Trump also referred to her husband's comments as locker room banter and likened them to "two teenage boys" talking about women.
"Sometimes I say I have two boys at home," she said. "I have my young son and I have my husband. I know how some men talk and that's how I saw it."
She also said she was surprised by the audio of her husband because that was not the man she knows.
“And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. It was only a mic. And I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on,” she said. “Because they were kind of — ah — boy talk. And he was led on. Like egg on from the host to say uh dirty and bad stuff.”
Cooper asked she believed Billy Bush had egged her husband on, to which she said “yes.”
The video, posted by the Washington Post, talked about a failed attempt to have sex with a married woman.
Trump then later says, “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful, I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
“Grab them by the pussy,” Trump adds. “You can do anything.”
Since the release of the video, multiple women have come forward and accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct.
Melania Trump said the accounts of the women were false and part of a bigger conspiracy by the media and Hillary Clinton campaign to destroy his candidacy.
"People come out saying lies and not true stuff," Melania Trump said. "It was left wing media, you could see that the way it comes out everything is organized...they want to influence American people how to vote and they influence the wrong way."
In a preview of an interview with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt, Melania Trump also said it was fair for her husband’s campaign to bring up accusations made against Bill Clinton to attack Hillary Clinton.
“Well, if they bring up my past, why not?” Melania said. “They’re asking for it. They started. They started from the — from the beginning of the campaign putting my — my picture from modeling days. That was my modeling days and I’m proud what I did. I worked very hard.”
Melania backed up on her statements on a Fox and Friends interview, which aired Tuesday morning.
"My husband is kind. He’s a gentleman. He cares about people. He cares about women," she said.
She again asserted that men like Billy Bush and Howard Stern instigate her husband to say inappropriate things.
"I know those people. They hook him on. They try to get from him some unappropriate [sic] and dirty language," she said.
When asked what advice she would give her husband ahead of the third and final presidential debate Wednesday, Melania said, "Be himself. Keep it calm, cool, focused. To talk about issues that American people want to hear about."