“I’m not in every interaction my father has. But he’s not a groper.” More from @IvankaTrump @CBSThisMorninghttps://t.co/DcevG8mKOi
— Norah O’Donnell (@NorahODonnell) May 18, 2016
As the fallout from Donald Trump’s 2005 “locker room banter” about women continues, we are starting to see how prominent Trump supporters are taking the news. Yet the startling fact of the matter is that this is an ongoing pattern, as The New York Times illustrated in a Friday piece that highlighted Jill Harth’s case. She sued Trump in 1997 over her interactions with the media mogul. And back in May during some accusations of Trump’s impropriety — there have been so many of them — his daughter, Ivanka Trump, went to bat for him. In an interview with CBS This Morning, she reacted with disappointment to the “ladies man” profile of her father from the The Times by insisting her rather has “total respect for women” and is “not a groper:”
“Look, I’m not in every interaction my father has. But he’s not a groper. It’s not who he is. And I’ve known my father obviously my whole life and he has total respect for women. I found it to be pretty disturbing, based on the facts as I know them, and obviously I very much know them. I was bothered by it, but it’s largely been discredited since.”
Yesterday, a number of Trump supporters were taken aback by the comments and appeared to be reconsidering their support of him. A “sickened” Paul Ryan cancelled a campaign stop with him, and Mike Pence is reportedly “beside himself” over his running mate’s comments. But he’s still got Sean Hannity’s support, so I guess there’s that. Ivanka has yet to support her father during this scandal, but she’s always been by her father’s side during rocky times.
Trump has since apologized for his comments and others are calling for him to resign as the Republican Presidential nominee.
(Via The New York Post & CBS This Morning & The New York Times)
