"Why the Trump tape started a national conversation about Sexual assault" PBS NewsHour 10/12/2016
"Locker room talk" is NEVER acceptable anywhere!
Excerpt
SUMMARY: A 2005 tape of Donald Trump speaking lewdly about women and describing sexual assault has gone far beyond politics, sparking a national discussion and an avalanche of reactions on social media after Kelly Oxford encouraged people to share their stories. John Yang leads a discussion with Oxford, Anita Hill of Brandeis University and Mike Wise of The Undefeated.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Almost a week after its release, the leaked tape of Donald Trump boasting of sexually harassing and assaulting women continues to raise issues that go well beyond presidential politics.
John Yang has that story.
BILLY BUSH, “Access Hollywood”: Yes. The Donald has scored! Whoa, my man!
JOHN YANG (NewsHour): The impact of this 2005 tape of Donald Trump and NBC personality Billy Bush has gone far beyond politics. It's sparked a national discussion over misogyny and sexual assault.
DONALD TRUMP (R), Presidential Candidate: I better use some 'Tic Tacs,' just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. I just kiss. I don't even wait. And, when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH: Whatever you want.
DONALD TRUMP: Grab them by the (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(LAUGHTER)
DONALD TRUMP: I can do anything.
JOHN YANG: While Trump apologized for the remarks during Sunday night's debate, he also tried to dismiss them.
DONALD TRUMP: Certainly, I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.
JOHN YANG: He also raised decades-old accusations against his opponent's husband, former President Bill Clinton.
DONALD TRUMP: Mine are words, and his was action. His was what he's done to women.
JOHN YANG: Hours before, the Republican nominee appeared with women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. None of those accusations, it should be said, have ever resulted in any criminal charges.
This all comes amid a heightened sensitivity about sexual assault and violence. There's the pending trial of comedian Bill Cosby on sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania and other similar allegations against him. And there was the furor over the six-month jail sentence handed earlier this year to Brock Turner, a Stanford University swimmer who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
Some Trump supporters have suggested that the reaction to the Trump tape is overblown.
SCOTT BAIO, Actor: And ladies out there, this is what guys talk about when you're not around. So, if you're offended by it, grow up. (yuk, gag)
JOHN YANG: But the tape prompted an avalanche of reaction on social media.
Author Kelly Oxford shared her own sexual assault experience, and encouraged others to do the same. Her callout swiftly went viral. More than 30 million people have either left a response or visited her Twitter page since Friday night, a nationwide catharsis of painful experiences.
And now for more on this, Kelly Oxford joins us now from Burbank, California, along with Anita Hill, who accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings. Hill is now a law professor at Brandeis University. And here in the studio, Mike Wise, senior writer for ESPN's “The Undefeated.”
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