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In 2005 tape, Trump suggests he can sexually assault women because he's 'a star'

"When you're a star they let you do it." Trump said of trying to kiss beautiful women. "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."
Credit: Washington Post

Donald Trump boasted about his ability to sexually assault women during an extremely obscene conversation from 2005 that was leaked to The Washington Post on Friday afternoon.

"When you're a star they let you do it." Trump said of trying to kiss beautiful women. "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

Read more on the The Washington Post's website.

The recording features Trump caught on a hot microphone as he's discussing his sexual habits with Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood." The conversation took place on the way to taping Trump's guest appearance on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives."

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"I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn't get there. And she was married," Trump says, describing an unsuccessful attempt to seduce an unnamed woman.

"And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, 'I'll show you where they have some nice furniture.'"

Trump has made sexist and disparaging comments about women throughout his public career. In recent weeks, he went after former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and called her "disgusting," and accused her of having a sex tape.

But this recording reaches another degree of lewdness, even by Trump's standards.

Soon after the Post published the recording, Trump released a statement offering a rare apology, while also defending it.

"This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago," Trump said. "Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended."

The recording appears to be from September, 2005, less than a year after Trump married this third wife, Melania. He was previously married to Marla Maples, with whom Trump carried on an extremely public affair with in the '90s.

The video comes after Trump has spent the past week attacking Hillary Clinton for her role in her husband's extra-marital affairs. He has accused his Democratic rival of "enabling" her husband behavior and threatening the women he had relationships with while they were married.

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"Hillary Clinton was married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics," Trump told the New York Times in an interview last week. He added that his own infidelity was "never a problem" in his own three marriages.

Clinton called the leaked video "horrific" in a brief tweet Friday afternoon. "We cannot let this man become president," it read.

Trump is set to campaign tomorrow with House Speaker Paul Ryan at the family-friendly "Republican Party of Wisconsin Fall Fest." Ryan has begrudgingly endorsed Trump but has since been forced to repeatedly answer for some of the candidate's most controversial statements.

Ryan has not yet commented on the recording. Two hours before it broke, he tweeted a picture of himself signing into law the sexual assault survivors' Bill of Rights.

"Victims of sexual assault deserve full protection under the law," Ryan's caption read. "And now, they will have it."

Follow Olivia Becker on Twitter: @oliviaLbecker