In an interview with The Daily Caller posted Tuesday, the president continued to chew over an event that occurred two years ago: the release of the Access Hollywood tape where he was heard boasting, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy.”
Asked about rumors that “NBC leadership” deliberately leaked the tape, Trump responded:
A lot of people say that what they did — OK, so I had a lawsuit prepared, I had a lawsuit that was prepared to be filed against NBC because they leaked that tape. First of all, that was done, that tape was, there are even questions about this tape, there’s many things going on. But it was also done in a dressing room — real questions about that whole process. And they gave it to the Washington Post because they couldn’t put it out there themselves ’cause they would’ve had tremendous liability so they gave it to the Washington Post to put out. OK. I had a lawyer hired to bring a suit right after the election ended. But one problem arose — I won the election. OK, and they were going to say, ‘what was your damages?’ The damages was I lost the election, but now I won the election. So what were the damages? I won the election. I was going to sue because what they did — that was done in the dressing room. You know those trailers are really luxury, beautiful, actually. That was done in a trailer. It ruined Billy Bush’s career. And that was done in a trailer secretly. That was illegal what they did.
There’s much to say about these comments.
The president has a long history of threatening lawsuits that are never carried out. It’s by no means clear what Trump could sue for. Following his usual pattern of kettle logic, Trump is here suggesting that the tape was both faked (“there are even questions about this tape”) and a violation of his privacy (“done in a trailer secretly”). The idea that the tape is fake is an old Trump standby, one that he raised soon after it was released.
But it’s heartening to see that Trump, in the midst of it all, still has time to comment on decor (“those trailers are really luxury, beautiful, actually”).