The New Zealand Herald

Melania Trump The man I know

Nominee’s wife says she doesn’t believe the sex assault claims

- — AP, Washington Post

Melania Trump has dismissed her husband’s sexually aggressive language as “boy talk,” insisting his remarks do not reflect “the man I know,” and said she does not believe that he has assaulted any women.

Trump’s wife, in a series of media interviews, said she has accepted her husband’s apology and the couple is “moving on”. The comments come more than a week after the release of a 2005 video in which Trump brags about kissing women and grabbing their genitals without their permission.

“I said to my husband that, you know, the language is inappropri­ate. It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know,” she told CNN.

She suggested that Trump may not have known his microphone was on, calling it “kind of a boy talk” that Access Hollywood host Billy Bush was encouragin­g.

And she suggested that the women who have claimed in recent days that Trump made unwanted advances were attention-seekers who were making “damaging and unfair” accusation­s.

“I believe my husband,” she said in the interview. “My husband didn’t do anything.”

Also yesterday, Donald Trump said he would be willing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin before Inaugurati­on Day if he is elected president, breaking sharply with precedent and showing little compunctio­n over stepping on the heels of President Barack Obama's final months in office.

“Putin has no respect at all for Obama. And I think that you have potentiall­y a really catastroph­ic situation here, I'll be honest with you,” Trump told conservati­ve radio host Michael Savage.

“I will say this, if I win . . . I think I could see myself meeting with Putin and meeting with Russia prior to the start of the administra­tion. I think it would be wonderful.”

Last night stars of Hollywood and Broadway — including Julia Roberts, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Neil Patrick Harris and Helen Mirren — put on a splashy fundraiser for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The candidate could only address the group via a video message. But daughter Chelsea and husband, Bill, were present at the sold-out event.

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 ??  ?? Protester Teague Stroh, left and Elbert Bonner, a Trump supporter, get into an argument during a rally by Donald Trump jnr, in Colorado.
Protester Teague Stroh, left and Elbert Bonner, a Trump supporter, get into an argument during a rally by Donald Trump jnr, in Colorado.

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