Bill Maher Blasts Leaked Trump Tape: ‘Making Sexual Assault Great Again’
The ‘Real Time’ host unloaded on the Republican presidential candidate for his claim that, because he was famous, he could “grab them by the pussy.”
Janet Van Ham
On Friday evening, The Washington Post released their “October Surprise”—and it came from a very unlikely source. The paper released a video of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has a well-documented history of rank misogyny—and whose own ex-wife, Ivana, once accused him of a violent rape—bragging about his ability to sexually assault women due to his fame.
Trump told Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush in 2005 that his then B-list celebrity status allowed him to “just start kissing women. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
The former reality show host, whose program The Apprentice aired on NBC alongside Access Hollywood, was caught on a hot mic chatting with George W. Bush and Jeb’s cousin on the gossip show’s bus. So on his program Real Time with Bill Maher, the titular political satirist went after Trump for his vile, sexist comments.
“Looks like we dodged a bullet a little bit with [Hurricane Matthew], however with Donald Trump talking about women, it has been upgraded to a Category 5 Shitstorm,” said Maher.
“This is what he says! Grab them by the pussy? Sounds like what Hillary did to him at the first debate,” Maher added. “I cannot wait for the Sunday morning talk shows to see what the Trump surrogates are going to spin this into: ‘Look, George, people are tired of Washington politicians who won’t grab the voters by the pussy. Donald Trump and Mike Pence are making sexual assault great again.’”
The “grab them by the pussy” comment wasn’t the only lewd remark in the leaked Trump video. Trump—who’d recently married to Melania Trump—also boasted to Bush about trying to seduce a married woman named “Nancy,” who’s since been identified as former Access Hollywood co-host Nancy O’Dell.
“I did try and fuck her. She was married,” Trump said of O’Dell. “And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping... I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there.” He went on to describe O’Dell, who he later tried to fire off the Miss USA pageant while she was 5 months pregnant, of having “big phony tits and everything.”
“And this is a week where, only just a few days ago, Donald Trump out on the stump accused Hillary Clinton—with no evidence—of cheating on Bill,” said Maher. “Donald Trump: the only person he’s ever been able to stay loyal to is Vladimir Putin. And what does Mike Pence [say], evangelical Catholic choirboy-Boy Scout-values person, a guy who said, ‘For thousands of years, marriage has served as the glue that holds families and societies together?’” “Mike: when Donald Trump hugs your wife, that’s not glue.”