Melania Trump in an interview granted on Monday has justified her husband lewd comment on women, in which he bragged about groping them in a leaked tape from 2005 as “boy talk.”
The wife to the Republican presidential nominee, who has kept a low profile during her husband’s presidential bid, gave her first television since the Oct. 7 release of the tape that has shaken Donald Trump’s campaign. He trails Democrat Hillary Clinton in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Melania Trump told CNN her husband was engaged in “boy talk, and he was led on – like, egged on – from the host to say dirty and bad stuff” in the conversation with “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush.
NBC said on Monday that Bush was leaving the “Today” show, following his role in the taped conversation with Donald Trump.
Melania Trump, a Slovenian-born former model, added in a CNN interview that aired on Monday night that she was surprised because she had never heard her husband use that kind of language before.
“No. No, that’s why I was surprised, because I said like I don’t know that person that would talk that way, and that he would say that kind of stuff in private,” Melania Trump said.
She told CNN that her husband behaved at times like an overgrown boy and that she saw his “Access Hollywood” remarks as in keeping with that behavior.
“Sometimes I say I have two boys at home. I have my young son and I have my husband. But I know how some men talk, and that’s how I saw it, yes,” she said.
Trump told CNN she agreed with first lady Michelle Obama that kissing or groping someone without consent constituted sexual assault, adding: “But every assault should be taken care of in a court of law. And to accuse, no matter who it is, a man or a woman, without evidence is damaging and unfair.”
‘MOVING ON’
In partial transcripts from a separate with Fox News, she said she had forgiven her husband for the comments in the tape, which was first published by the Washington Post.
“Those words, they were offensive to me and they were inappropriate. And he apologized to me. And I … accept his apology. And we are moving on.”
They were her first public comments since a statement she issued after the tape’s publication in which she said her husband’s remarks did “not represent the man that I know.”
Melania Trump told Fox News that her husband, a New York businessman and former reality television star, was committed to running for office even though it was difficult because he had been “in so many shows, so many tapes” over the years.