NEW YORK – Melania Trump rose to her husband’s defence on Monday, describing lewd comments the Republican presidential nominee made on a leaked 2005 video in which he bragged about groping women as “boy talk”.
Trump, who has kept a low profile during her husband’s presidential bid, gave her first television interviews since the October 7 release of the tape that has shaken Donald Trump’s campaign.
He trails Democrat Hillary Clinton in opinion polls ahead of the November 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 behaviour.
“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.”
In partial transcripts from a separate interview with Fox News, she said she had forgiven her husband for the comments in the tape, which was first published by the Washington Post. (Reuters)
