The following article by Jacqueline Thomsen was posted on the Hill website November 27, 2017:
“Access Hollywood” is responding to reports that President Trump doesn’t believe that the infamous tape of him on the program — bragging about groping and kissing women without their consent — is real.
“We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape,” host Natalie Morales said during a Monday broadcast.
“Let us make this perfectly clear: The tape is very real,” she said. “Remember his excuse at the time was ‘locker room talk.’ He said every one of those words.”
Trump reportedly told a senator and an adviser earlier this year that he believes the tape, which was recorded in 2005 and came to light weeks before the 2016 presidential election, might not be authentic.
Trump acknowledged that it was him caught on the tape after it was released last year and apologized for the comments, describing them as “locker room talk” between men.
Also on Monday, Arianne Zucker, one of the actresses who greeted Trump and “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush on the tape, said that while she wasn’t present for Trump’s “when you’re a star, they let you do it” remarks, she didn’t see how the recording could be faked.
“I don’t know how else that could be fake unless someone’s planting words in your mouth,” Zucker told CNN host Anderson Cooper on “Anderson Cooper 360.” “How do you apologize for something and renege on it? It’s puzzling to me.”
After the tape’s existence was first reported by The Washington Post last year, multiple women came forward to accuse Trump of sexual harassment or assault.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to deny that Trump thinks the tape is fake during the press briefing Monday.
“The president addressed this, this was litigated and certainly answered during the election by the overwhelming support for the president and the fact he’s sitting here in the Oval Office today,” Sanders said.
Updated at 10:50 p.m.
View the post here.