Ivanka Trump says dad’s 2005 comments ‘inappropriate, offensive’

Ivanka Trump said her father’s comments from a 2005 audio tape in which he is heard making vulgar and lewd remarks about grabbing women were “clearly inappropriate and offensive.”

The Republican nominee’s Jewish daughter told Fast Company in statement Tuesday that her “father’s comments were clearly inappropriate and offensive and I’m glad that he acknowledged this fact with an immediate apology to my family and the American people.”

The statement was part of a profile the magazine ran of Ivanka Trump in which she is interviewed about her business and the media scrutiny she and her family have been through throughout her father’s presidential campaign.

“The greatest comfort I have is the fact that I know my father. Most of the people who write about him don’t. I do,” Trump said. “So that gives me an ability to shrug off the things that I read about him that are wrong.”

Her comments came more than a week after the release of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump brags about kissing women and grabbing their genitals without their permission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY8FwWwIVyQ

The profile noted that Trump had defended her father in the past against charges of sexism, calling him “an equal opportunity offender” who has “said plenty of rough things about men over the years.”

To a question about how the media has covered her role in the campaign, with a reference to her as her father’s “surrogate wife,” Trump said it was “deeply offensive” and “a very sexist thing to say.”

Trump’s wife Melania also called the 2005 comments offensive and unacceptable but came to his defense by dismissing the sexually aggressive language as “boy talk,” and insisting his remarks do not reflect “the man I know.”

Trump’s wife, in a series of media interviews, said she has accepted her husband’s apology and the couple is “moving on.”

“I said to my husband that, you know, the language is inappropriate. It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know,” she told CNN.

She suggested that Trump may not have known his microphone was on, calling it “kind of a boy talk” that “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush was encouraging.

Mrs. Trump also said it is fair game for her husband to appear with women who have accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault, claiming the Democrats fired the first volley into the increasingly ugly war about the couples’ private lives.

“They’re asking for it. They started. They started from the beginning of the campaign putting my picture from modeling days,” she said in excerpts released by Fox News ahead of the interview’s broadcast. “That was my modeling days and I’m proud what I did. I worked very hard.”

Melania Trump’s image was used in a negative ad campaign during the Republican primary, but there is no evidence that the Clintons were involved. At the time, Donald Trump accused former rival Ted Cruz of being involved and responded by tweeting an unflattering image of the Texas senator’s wife. Cruz also denied involvement.

The interviews were Melania Trump’s first moments in the public eye since the accusations over the last 10 days that have sent her husband’s White House bid reeling.

First, a 2005 video leaked of Trump using vulgar language to describe women and apparently boasting of sexual assault. And in recent days, several women have come forward to say that Trump had groped or sexually assaulted them.

The Republican nominee has denied the claims, calling the women liars and belittling their appearances.