I grew up with cats – my parents had several cats when I was born, and reportedly, one cat even liked to sleep in my crib (which is totally bad parenting, I know, but whatever, I survived). I always tended to view the cats as my siblings (I’m an only child) and apparently, when I was a toddler and getting up to some sh-t, I would blame the cats whenever I was caught. “Kitty did it,” is what I would say when I was caught doing something wrong. That’s where we are now, in our political landscape. We’re in the Kitty Did It phase of the Trump presidency. Donald Trump cannot accept responsibility for anything, he cannot be criticized in the least, he is incapable of simply owning a mistake or admitting that he lied, or offering a half-assed apology for sexually assaulting 16 women (that we know of).
To recap, with only a month left in the 2016 election, the Access Hollywood tape was leaked. In the tape, Donald Trump and Billy Bush are speaking on a “hot mic” before they taped a segment on a soap opera. In between bragging about moving in on Nancy O’Dell “like a bitch,” Trump also said: “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the p****. You can do anything.” OR DID HE?
President Donald Trump has questioned the authenticity of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which he bragged about being able to grope women, The New York Times reported over the weekend, despite the fact that Trump immediately apologized for his remarks when the video surfaced.
Trump’s decision to stick with Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore despite sexual harassment allegations against him is rooted in the President’s own sexual harassment scandal during the 2016 election.
“He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after,” the Times reported. “He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently.”
CNN has not independently confirmed the New York Times’ reporting. The White House has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
It would not surprise me. It would not surprise me that Trump is now claiming that the whole thing is “fake.” Remember, there’s no bigger clue to the veracity of any claim than Trump declaring it to be “fake.” The more he cries “fake news,” the more you know it’s real. The more he tells people that the Access Hollywood tape was fake, you know that he probably said a lot worse to many other people.
When asked about this in the Monday press briefing, Sarah Sanders tried to side-step the questions repeatedly, saying that Trump hasn’t changed his position (???) and then, when pressed further, said: “Look. I said that [Trump] already addressed it, and that we didn’t have any updates on that. I said what he didn’t like and what he found troubling were the accounts that are being reported now.” If I use my Sarah Huckabee Sanders decoder ring, I think she’s saying that Trump maybe admits that the tape is really his voice but he’s still denying that he sexually assaulted all of those women. As in, he takes issue with the idea that the Access Hollywood tape is an admission that he sexually assaulted women. Bullsh-t.
In any case, even Access Hollywood has gotten into the “fact-checking Bigly” business. Natalie Morales said, on camera, last night: “We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape. Let us make this perfectly clear — the tape is very real. Remember his excuse at the time was ‘locker-room talk.’ He said every one of those words.”
Photos courtesy of Getty.
He is saying that it’s fake so that he won’t be investigated and so that his followers will believe it’s fake. They’re stupid enough to believe him.
Time for a voice analysis. Didn’t melania confirm it as ‘locker room talk’ last year?
But, of course, his cultists will lap up any guano he spews.
Let’s not even give that nonsense any Credence and stop repeating it. He’s using it as this deflection and the distraction and creating the possibility that it could just be fake where a bunch of his followers and idiots can use this as a weapon to say “hey maybe it’s not him”… Nope let’s shut it down and not even make this a news story.
Yup. Next he’ll be saying his apology tape was also fake. And Melania’s interview. All fake news.
I just had this debate with a bunch of orange supporting idiot Trumponians on Facebook. Everything this toilet paper doesn’t like he will always label fake. This is literally all he ever says, aside from some latent dementia ridden repetitions. His biggest insult to others is exactly how he views himself as most bullies; fake, phony, loser, huge, nuts, failure, liar and the list goes way on. You know what’s fake? His marriage, his hair, his presidency, his words, his finances, his family, his entire orange toilet paper existence. All fake.
He went typically batshit when those boys didn’t thank him enough from being released from China over some shoplifting charges. Even though they did. I guess they didn’t grab him in the puzzy enough to seem grateful. Yet this beyond belief genuine crook and fraud forgets that his papa was arrested in 1921 after attending a KKK rally. And was also essentially run out of Germany. I wonder who he would be grateful for due to avoiding serious prison time over his hate crimes.
I wish pray and Desire with all my heart and soul that Trump and his kin who are as complicit if not more, gets so Stark naked revealed that they will be run out of the United States and thrown in some secret prison reserved for terrorists. I want to see a Negan type person from The Walking Dead actualize in real life and see to the torture the Trump should encounter. May he and his hair never know a moment’s rest.
Sorry. Had to vent or I would spontaneously combust from Rage
I re-read 1984 a couple of months ago and it was chilling how close we are getting to living that.
Freaky isn’t it?
Trump is setting the stage to be able to call all video and audio evidence of him committing crimes as fake. Good news for us is that he is being forced to play defense.
This is plausible.
Gotta be more tapes coming! **fingers crossed**
Oh how I wish. We know The Apprentice is likely sitting on a lot of footage of Dump being racist and sexist. At this point someone would have to steal it and leak it. His base would still support him and the Republicans would still be too wimpy to take action.
I think dude is just very mentally ill and senile. We keep trying to ascribe logic to behavior that’s just the byproduct of his mental issues.
There IS a lot of footage that would be bad for him but a) A bunch of cowards won’t release them for fear of repercussion and, b) His rabid followers who act like they have an untreated onset of advanced rabies wouldn’t care…they generally dgaf in general. Plus, way too stunningly stupid.
They can’t release the tapes because Trump legally owns all the footage from the Apprentice. The tapes are somewhere out there, but they are under Trump’s control and will likely never see the light of day.
This is a brilliant comment. Why else would be suddenly go this wacky route?
@Kaiser – I had a cat that slept in the crib with my youngest. Never had a problem with it. Again, Sanders (and how she does this day after day and not lose any respect for herself is beyond me) is defending him. I think he is trying to say it’s fake because by defending Moore, people are beginning to question, again, his sexual harassment and assault.
Yeah I don’t get why that would be irresponsible…just in case the cat scratched or…?
They don’t actually steal baby’s breath like the folklore says 😉
He literally admitted to its authenticity last year. So is he a liar (yes) or did he forget that point
Precisely this. Or perhaps his dementia has progressed. **Cough 25th Amendment Cough**
Yes, he did admit it.
You mean the tape he APOLOGIZED for when it was released? I’m positive he did a mea culpa and said what he said was unacceptable and actually apologized for saying it.
I’m still impatiently waiting for Mueller to get this liar and worst president of the US away from power as well as all his supporters, voters and enablers. The dustbin of history is where they all belong.
He’s preempting new footage/evidence of his criminality coming out with his normal ‘fake news’ BS. The noose is tightening – he can’t keep dodging bullets.
They’re both so disgusting in that tape. Asking for hugs, who does she like better? Yuck. I’ve had that happen to me, what do you guys say when a guy asks for a hug?
I have no problem saying no, but I don’t like to be touched at the best of times, from a stranger it’s even worse. I remember @QQ telling me once that people would just walk up to her and touch her hair, without even asking. Can you imagine the audacity of some people?
I say no. I’ve had issues with setting boundaries when guys were verbally disgusting but touching? No. I guess it’s because I don’t freeze, I recoil. I hate being touched randomly unless it’s family or very close friends. Even on my arm etc., I just don’t like it so my reaction is very quickly “No. I’m not a hugger.”
I say no, i’m not a hugger.
I awkwardly hug them because my brain freezes and I can’t think Of anything else to do, ugh. I know exactly how she feels. I also do the same laugh when I feel uncomfortable. Someone says something inappropriate? Cue me laughing awkwardly and then excusing myself shortly after. I literally can’t think of any other thing to say in the moment. I only think of possible witty retorts like three days later.
An acting coach once told me to watch how far apart people’s hips are when they hug. The person that is uncomfortable (usually woman) will keep their hips far apart from the other person and bend at the waist to make upper body contact. It is a way of avoiding intimacy. People who are actually comfortable hugging each other will have hips that are much closer together. It’s just a sad reflection that people aren’t comfortable hugging are still doing it because they feel obligated.
Does this moron forget that he admitted last year that this was real? We all heard and watched the recording of him and Billy Bush. During an interview, his wife said he apologized for what he described as “locker room talk”
BB got fired when it came out. He needs to grow some balls and speak up.
Right?? It’s completely insane that after admitting it was him (uh, like there was actually any doubt to begin with about that voice and those speech patterns) he is now suggesting it wasn’t him. He admitted it and apologized for it. Crazytown x 50000.
Yeah, that’s why Billy Bush just went quietly. Because it was all fake.
Thank you for decoding that. I read Sander’s “answer” twice and still couldn’t tell wtf she was talking about. The doublespeak in this administration makes my head spin.
Because in my time we were trained to give men – uncles and the like – hugs, I used to go along more often than I would now. Now I can say no, and do, even when it’s a man who is hug-appropriate. I think a lot of “nice guys” were equally schooled to say “give us a hug” as a way to get access to women’s bodies without seeming aggressive. Hugs are not always harmless. It’s a test. Say no. I mean, if he has to ask for it…obviously you didn’t initiate giving it.
Alternatives: saying no, offering a hand, blowing a kiss (if you mean it), saying no with an explanation that can be as simple as “no hugs today” or “it’s not hug time” or “we’re not hug friends” or “you’ll live without it” or “you’ll have to do without” or “does mummy’s baby need a hug?” And so on.
Sometimes a simple “shop’s closed” does it.
I find the hugging thing so fascinating. I don’t see women doing it (usually, there are serious huggers out there amongst us but that’s different) so obviously it’s about getting close, taking something you want. Because YES, if you have to ask, it’s probably not your place to hug that particular woman. And it’s so useless. Just shake hands, goddamn it. Be an adult. This is not cuddle time.
Thanks, exactly. This is not cuddle time. You don’t get me surrendering my body to you so you can feel better.
If the prospective recipient of the hug is someone you really don’t care about, there’s always, “Ew no. You smell, and it might rub off.”
I could go on all day!
I’m a hugger, but I also don’t hug someone I don’t know or was just introduced to. Mostly handshakes for those I’m not really familiar with and sometimes not even that.
I had a boss (who I hated, but for many, many other reasons) who would shake hands with my male coworkers and hug me in greeting. I worked in a mostly-male industry and was often the only woman on my team at any given time. It’s only been in the last few months that I really thought about it and put my finger on why it felt so weird and gross at the time (and it did!) I don’t mind hugs with friends or family, but in a work setting it’s just inappropriate and demeaning. And gross.
I never thought about it like that, but your comment has really got me thinking now.
Repeat a lie often enough…. especially with his base voters.
And, poor Barron. That photo, the expression on his face, always that expression around his sperm donor.
Those two never look like they have any connection. Also, fortunately for Barron, he looks like his mother.
This dude NEEDS to go. like, stat.
Why is he even saying this? The pig who bragged about being a “pussy grabber,” was elected as president because too many didn’t care about the perverted conversation, and Billy Bush was forever banished from society. He’ll do anything to distract us from the Russia investigation
Trump is the king of distraction. More people are talking about this story instead of Russia, the tax bill, indictments and Roy Moore.
This just seems like mental illness. He has lied successfully so often he thinks he can un-do reality. He already believes he can make things come true (seriously – he does!). Now he thinks he can wish them away. He’s a very sick man.
He literally said, “I said it” about the Access Hollywood tape. He outright admitted he said those things, that it was him, and then apologized for it (in his bumbling and idiotic way). I am honestly baffled by this odd turn of events.
I wish that the tapes of behind the scenes of The Apprentice were released. I remember Tom Arnold confirming their existence.