GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said Monday he believes Donald Trump is telling the truth when he says that the lewd remarks he made about women over a decade ago were “only words.”
“Donald Trump made it clear that those were words, only words last night, that he hadn’t engaged in any of that behavior, and I believe him,” Mr. Pence said, adding that voters are more focused on their concerns about terrorism and the economy.
“They see in Hillary Clinton somebody who wants to continue all the same policies that have weakened America’s place in the world and stifled our economy,” he said on MSNBC.
CNN host Anderson Cooper, who moderated the second debate with Martha Raddatz of ABC News, pressed Mr. Trump on whether he had engaged in any of the actions that he described in the recently leaked audio and video recordings in which he boasts about trying to have sex with a married woman and how women allow him to grope them without their consent because of his stardom.
“Have you ever done those things?” Mr. Cooper asked.
Mr. Trump said, “No, I have not.”
Mr. Trump described the remarks as “locker room” talk and tried to redirect the conversation toward people who have accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault in the past.
If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words, and his was action,” he said. “His was what he’s done to women. There’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women. So you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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