Trump apologises for lewd remarks on women

A leaked video from 2005 caught him passing crude remarks and bragging about groping women because of his fame.

WASHINGTON: US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has apologised after a leaked video from 2005 caught him passing crude remarks and bragging about groping women because of his fame.

Following the release of the recording, Trump initially said he was sorry “if anyone was offended” by the “locker room banter”.

However, after a backlash from his party colleagues, Trump issued a more forthright video apology in which he said: “I have said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them.”

“Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong and I apologise. I pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down,” Sky news quoted Trump as saying.

In the short but defiant address, Trump insisted that his lewd remarks captured on tape amounted to “nothing more than a distraction” and were not as shocking as former US President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs.

He posted a 90-second video on Facebook in response to a chorus of condemnation after he was recorded in a lewd conversation talking about trying to have sex with a married woman and saying that his celebrity status allowed him to “do anything” with women, the Irish Times reported.

In the tape, Trump, who was only recently married to Melania Trump at the time, says of an unknown woman, “I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it.”