To listen to Donald Trump’s hostage video apology, you’d think the “pussy-grab” video was the most freakish piece of bad luck ever to hit a Presidential campaign: This guy, who respects women more than any other man on the face of the planet, he has this one bad day when he dabbles in a little bit of “locker-room talk,” and whaddaya know: Years later, when that uncharacteristic incident is far behind him, his evil enemies find the video and persecute him. So sad, so deplorable.
Poor Donald.
But you know what? Turns out — you ready for a shock? — that’s not the only time The Donald has said something like that! Turns out there are even audio recordings of some of them, which our friends at CNN have helpfully compiled for our listening pleasure.
It’s almost enough to make you think that, far from a single, long-past incident, isolated and irrelevant, the pussy-grab video may have been a glimpse into the soul of a guy who has spent 70 years believing women are valuable only insofar as they are able and willing to meet his own desires, both visually and physically.
With that in mind, here’s a list of additional apologies I think The Donald should get to work on:
1. OK to call Ivanka a “piece of ass.”
"My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka," says Trump. "Can I say this? A piece of ass," Stern responds. "Yeah," says Trump.2. Women past their youth are to be discarded.
"Until she's 35," a co-host interjects. "What is it at 35? It's called check-out time," Trump responds.Stern asks [60-year-old] Trump, "Do you think you could now be banging 24-year-olds?"
"Oh, absolutely," Trump says.3. It’s OK to ogle naked women if you sort of own them.
"Well, what you could also say is that, as the owner of the pageant, it's your obligation to do that," Trump said, before discussing how he got away with going backstage when the contestants were naked. "Well, I'll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I'll go backstage and everyone's getting dressed . . . and you know, no men are anywhere, and I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it," Trump said. "You know, the dresses. 'Is everyone okay?' You know, they're standing there with no clothes. 'Is everybody okay?' And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.”There’s plenty more in the CNN article, along with the audio recordings of all of them. But CNN isn’t the only source documenting that pussy-grabbing is The Donald’s essential attitude toward women. A few others of the many that have surfaced lately:
4. Could have nailed Princess Diana.
This was one that hit me viscerally, and from the responses to MediaFreeze’s diary and my comment in that diary, there were a lot of other people who reacted the same way.
5. Not pretty enough? “You’re Fired!”
There have been multiple reports that Trump wanted to fire female employees from his club if they didn’t meet his beauty standard. Women who weren’t a “10” by Trump standards have talked about how they would not be scheduled for work, or would stay in the back where they weren’t visible, if Trump were going to be on the property, because he would get angry if he saw them.
6. Actions to match the words — actual assaults, not just talking about it.
We saw on the pussy-grab video that Trump’s talk about sexual assault was matched by his actions — he kissed the guide who met the bus, and harassed her into a hug that she was clearly reluctant to give — but because he was a “star,” she obviously didn’t have much of a choice. She knew that offending people like Donald Trump would not enhance her job security or her future career.
Then there are the daily, constant assaults against women in his employ. Trump likes to brag about how many women he has hired or done business with. In recent months, we’ve learned what this meant in practice: Trump had a lot of female bodies he felt he had a right to touch, initiate unwanted physical contact with, ogle, comment upon, and otherwise assault and humiliate.
The Many Times Trump Has Been Accused of Harassing Female Employees
Woman Who Claims Trump Assaulted Her Goes On Twitter Rampage (from June, 2016)
Trump’s Female Employees Have Sued Over Sexual Harassment (from August, 2016)
‘Apprentice’ Cast & Crew Say Trump Was Lewd & Sexist
Imagine if you will: This “man,” who sees women as his playthings and objects of his voyeurism, who believes he can get away with doing whatever he wants to them because they won’t refuse someone with his level of power (“star” power, employer power, financial power, VIP power) — just imagine him in the most powerful political office in the world.
And then get out there and GOTV.
Because even though I’m pretending in my headline that Donald Trump has an apology checklist, you know as well as I do that nothing could be further from the truth. These women that he has objectified, groped, humiliated and insulted are more likely to inherit a million dollars from him when he dies than they are to ever, ever hear the words “I’m sorry” coming from his lips.
#Deplorable #TrumpSexualAssault #NeverTrump