Donald Trump Jr. says his father's boasts about groping women make him 'a human'

Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday dismissed accusations that his father had repeatedly groped women as “probably a typical New York Times smear campaign” and asserted that the Republican nominee’s 2005 comments bragging about sexual assault make him “a human.”

Responding to a Times report on two women who came forward to accuse Donald Trump of unwanted sexual advances, Donald Jr. told the Charlotte radio station WBT that he had “never heard anything dumber in my life.” And echoing his father, who has denied the women’s claims and called the Times report a “fabrication,” he accused the newspaper of libeling Trump for political reasons.


But Donald Jr. went farther than his father has in excusing comments Trump made in 2005, when he demeaned women and boasted that he could sexually assault them without consequences because of his celebrity. Donald Jr., while acknowledging that his family was not “happy” with the comments caught on a hot microphone, tried to pass them off as a positive, suggesting that they reflect the “human” qualities that make Trump an appealing candidate.

“I’ve had conversations like that with plenty of people where people use language off color. They’re talking, two guys, amongst themselves. I’ve seen it time and time again. I think it makes him a human,” Donald Jr. said in a clip first reported by CNN. “I think it makes him a normal person, not a political robot. He hasn’t spent his whole life waiting for this moment to run for the presidency.”

He repeated: “I think it means that he’s a human being that he’s a regular person like everyone else. I think that’s what endeared him to the American public.”

After The Washington Post published leaked audio and video from that 2005 conversation last week, Trump has been condemned by members of both parties and faced defections from some Republicans, panicked that the fallout will threaten their congressional majorities. Trump has apologized for the remarks but dismissed them as “locker room talk,” maintaining that he never acted as he described in the tape.

The women in the Times story, though, are refuting that claim, as are others who have spoken out in other publications, such as People magazine, with their own allegations of misconduct on the part of the Republican nominee. Trump has denied them all, arguing that they are false and politically motivated.