After what’s recently been brought to light over the weekend in the media regarding Donald Trump’s decade-old recording that’s been leaked, he’s been receiving much attention.
However, this time his comments aren’t going to be brushed under the rug as usual. Although this recording was from an interview conducted in 2005 with Howard Stern, his degrading words have finally caught up to him at a crucial point in this election.
Sunday’s Presidential Debate was Donald Trump’s chance to defend himself, and in-between many abrupt deep sniffles, he tried to do just that. Trump was confronted about this interview with Stern and did apologize…sort of.
Trump has mocked and degraded many different groups before, from women to Latinos, veterans to Muslims and so on.
However, for this recording to be brought up just before the second debate, and with Trump basically bragging about sexual assault during the interview, it was difficult for him to ignore this topic like he does with many others.
In the interview with Howard Stern, Trump bragged about grabbing women by their genitalia and hitting on married women. Despite the fact that this interview is surfacing now, over a decade later, seems this is a recurring thing that hasn’t changed much over the years.
I like to think that it’s not about what you’ve done, but it’s about what you’re doing. However, Trump has done this sort of thing countless times and has continued to do so throughout the election thus far. It’s not like this is the first time he’s neglected to filter his lewd thoughts.
He apologized to the American people, but instead of fully owning up to his words, he went on to say, “but ISIS…,”and then rambled on, avoiding the question at hand. He then claimed he has tremendous respect for women and that no one has more respect for women than he does.
When this came out of his mouth on live television, I couldn’t help but question whether he was joking or actually being serious.
Maybe he does believe he respects women, but the recording that swept through the media over the weekend most definitely shows otherwise, in my opinion. If anyone actually believed Trump when he said he has tremendous respect for women, they’re either not paying attention at all or just in their own little world.
I didn’t exactly respect the way in which Trump went about his apology, or attempted averting to the topic of ISIS instead, but at least he did apologize in his own way. I also didn’t think it was right for Trump to have brought up Bill Clinton’s past sexual endeavors, but I wasn’t surprised in the least.
Hillary, however, kept her composure and, in my opinion, handled herself much more appropriately than Trump did in this debate. She may have interrupted, but not as much as Trump did.
I want to make it clear that I’m not a fan of either candidate, nor do I favor one over the other, as I’m still feeling the Bern. However, I do feel Hillary conducted herself much better than Trump Sunday evening.
Trump didn’t exactly right his wrong so much as he did basically say, “you’re wrong, and I’m right,” but are we surprised? I’m more surprised with him claiming no one has more respect for women than he does.
Overall, I feel Trump could have used this past Sunday’s second debate much more wisely, especially after receiving so much negativity. Paul Ryan has now come forward saying he will no longer defend Trump. I don’t blame him.
I’m eager to see if this interview and the way Trump brushed his words aside will have any impact on women voters or voters in general. It will be interesting to see what Trump does next with only one more debate left taking place on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
Adam Urquhart can be contacted at aurquhart@kscequinox.com
