Melania Trump said Monday that the women accusing her husband of sexual assault are all lying, and dismissed the allegations by saying women constantly approach the GOP nominee to give him their phone numbers.
Her remarks came in her first interview since the Washington Post published a video earlier this month showing Donald Trump bragged in 2005 about sexually accosting women.
In the video, Trump told former “Access Hollywood” host Bill Bush, “[W]hen you’re a star [women] let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
The GOP nominee’s remarks about grabbing women have been interpreted by many to be an explicit admission of sexual assault.
Trump’s third wife, however, sees it differently.
“No. That’s not sexual assault. He didn’t say he did it, and I see many, many women coming to him and giving phone numbers and, you know, want to work for him or inappropriate stuff from women. And they know he’s married,” she said Monday in an interview with Anderson Cooper.
Her interviewer interjected to ask, “You’ve seen that?”
“Oh, yes, of course. It was in front of me,” Melania Trump said.
“In front of you?”
“In front of me,” Trump reaffirmed. “And I said, like, why you need to give your number to my husband?”
She changed gears quickly, and said, “I’m very strong. People, they don’t really know me. People think and talk about me, the – like, ‘Oh, Melania. Oh, poor Melania.’ Don’t feel sorry for me. Don’t feel sorry for me. I can handle everything.”
“And for this – for people talking like that, I see in the press a lot almost, like, celebrities or people, they think they’re celebrities, I would suggest to them to look themselves in the mirror and to look at their actions and to take care of their own families,” she said.
Multiple women have come forward since the Post’s publication of the 2005 video to allege that the GOP nominee at one time forced himself on them.
