Melania Trump has given interviews to CNN and Fox News, talking for the first time in detail about the audio recordings that have damaged her husband’s race for the presidency.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and FNC’s Ainsley Earhardt interviewed Mrs. Trump at Trump Tower Monday. CNN will air the interview on AC 360 at 8 p.m. ET, while Earhardt will preview her interview–set for Tuesday morning’s Fox and Friends–on The Five at 5 p.m. ET.
The interviews are Mrs. Trump’s first since the release of video from a 2005 Access Hollywood story that captured Donald Trump talking in graphic terms about women, and described kissing and groping them without consent.
In the CNN interview, Mrs. Trump suggests Billy Bush was pushing Trump to say “dirty and bad stuff”:
Anderson Cooper: It was 10 days ago that Access Hollywood released that tape. I’m wondering when you first saw it , when you first heard it, what did you think?
Melania Trump: I, I said to my husband that you know the language was unappropriate (sic). It’s not acceptable and I was surprised, because that is not the man that i know. 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. Because they were kind of – ah — boy talk. And he was lead on. Like egg on from the host to say uh dirty and bad stuff
Anderson Cooper: You feel the host, Billy Bush, was sort of egging him on?
Melania Trump: Yes. Yes.
In the Fox News interview, Trump said her husband apologized, and she accepted the apology. “Those words, they were offensive to me and they were inappropriate,” Trump said. “I accept his apology. And we are moving on.”
Asked by Earhardt if it’s fair for her husband’s campaign to bring up accusations made against Bill Clinton, Trump said yes:
TRUMP: “Well, if they bring up my past, why not?”
EARHARDT: “So they — they’re asking for it?”
TRUMP: “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.”
Guess who I am about to interview? @foxandfriends #Election2016 @FoxNews #Interview pic.twitter.com/nAhFiwpE8V
— Ainsley Earhardt (@ainsleyearhardt) October 17, 2016