The Associated Press is falsely claiming that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has apologized after the release of a 2005 video in which Trump discussed how he “just start[s] kissing” women he is attracted to because “when you’re a star… you can do anything” including “grab them by the pussy.” In fact, Trump said in a statement “I apologize if anyone was offended.”
As The Washington Post reported:
Donald Trump bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone — saying that “when you’re a star, they let you do it” — according to a video obtained by The Washington Post.
[...]
“I’ve gotta use some tic tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump says.“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
“And when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
“Whatever you want,” says another voice, apparently Bush’s.
“Grab them by the p---y,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
In a statement released by his campaign, Trump did not apologize for his comments, which appear to describe sexual assault, but rather apologized “if anyone was offended”:
This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.
As CNN’s Jackie Kucinich explained, “That's not an apology. That's not, ‘I'm sorry.’ That's like, ‘If you're offended by that I guess I'm sorry about that, that you're offended.’ Not that you're sorry about what you said. And he's done this before in other -- Donald Trump doesn't apologize. He sort of tries to -- he sounds like he's apologizing but that's not an apology.”
The AP, however, described Trump’s comments as a “rare apology."
Trump issues rare apology after video emerges showing him making lewd, sexually charged comments about women in 2005 https://t.co/PNdJmX7cgS
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 7, 2016
UPDATE: Following the publication of this post, the AP deleted its tweet because “it didn't contain the full context of what the candidate said,” and produced a new tweet that accurately stated Trump apologized “if anyone was offended.”
AP has deleted a tweet about Trump's remarks because it didn't contain the full context of what the candidate said. A new tweet is upcoming.
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 7, 2016
Trump says he apologizes “if anyone was offended” for lewd remarks caught on tape that he calls “locker room banter” https://t.co/crcYqKkvPw
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 7, 2016