Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen was filled with joy when he watched the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape wherein President Trump, years before running for office, is heard bragging about aggressively coming on to women.
Cohen wrote in an op-ed published Monday that when he first watched the tape, which was released a month before the November election, he “rocketed out of my chair with glee.”
“Trump is finished, I said to anyone who would listen,” he continued. “A presidential candidate cannot say such a thing and survive.”
Cohen had described the tape in much graver terms in a previous column.
“He had been caught talking trash about women,” Cohen wrote in October, after the tape was released. “He has been caught boasting about committing the sort of sex crimes transit cops are always on the lookout for.”
He said that the tape showed Trump having “boasted of sexual assault.”
Asked by email from the Washington Examiner if it was appropriate to feel “glee” on matters related to sexual assault, neither Cohen nor a Post spokeswoman returned a comment.
In 1998, the New York Observer reported that a Post colleague had accused Cohen of “inappropriate” behavior, including suggestive comments, which Cohen denied.
