President Trump reportedly told a senator earlier this year that the infamous recording in which he can be heard boasting about groping and kissing women without their consent may not be authentic, and repeated that claim recently to an adviser.
According to a New York Times report published Saturday, Trump is open to the suggestion that the sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore are false and politically motivated.
What’s more, he views calls for Moore to withdraw from the Alabama Senate race as similar to those he faced after The Washington Post released the so-called “Access Hollywood” tape weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
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Trump had acknowledged after the 2005 tape was released that it was his voice on the recording. He subsequently apologized for his comments, but sought to cast them as “locker room talk.”
Numerous women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse Moore of pursuing sexual and romantic relations with them when they were teenagers and he was in his early 30s. One of his accusers was 14 at the time of an alleged encounter with Moore.
The insurgent conservative candidate has denied most of the allegations, and has dismissed pleas from Republican officials and lawmakers to step aside in the Alabama Senate race. Meanwhile, his Democratic opponent Doug Jones has risen in the polls ahead of the Dec. 12 special election.
After days of staying relatively silent on the matter, Trump defended Moore this week, stressing that the candidate has denied the allegations against him and blasting the notion of a Democrat winning the Senate seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.