Fact-Checking Donald Trump on His Remarks About Women’s Appearance
At the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Oct. 19, moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News asked Republican nominee Donald Trump to about the mounting allegations from a women accusing Trump of groping, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
“Why would so many different women from so many different circumstances over so many different years — why would they all in this last couple of weeks make up — you deny this — why would they all make up these stories?” asked Wallace.
Trump defended himself, replying, “Those people? I don’t know those people,” Trump said, adding, “These women, the woman on the plane, the woman — I think they want either fame or [Clinton’s] campaign said it and I think it’s her campaign….I believe, Chris, that she got these people to step forward. If it wasn’t, they get there ten minutes of fame.”
Hillary Clinton replied: “Well, at the last debate we heard Donald talking about what he did to women. And after that, a number of women have come forward saying that’s exactly what he did to them. Now what was his response? Well, he held a number of big rallies where he said that he could not possibly have done those things to those women because they were not attractive enough for them to be assaulted.”
To which Trump replied. “I did not say that.”
However, it appears he did.
While NPR points out that Trump’s exact phrasing was different, he did infer — twice — that his current accusers are not attractive enough to warrant their claims. What follows is Trump’s comments about them, along with a timeline of his most notable remarks on the appearances, bodies, and weights of women in his life.
Oct. 14, 2016
Trump says Jessica Leeds, one of two women who came forward in the New York Times with allegations of having been groped by Trump, “would not be my first choice” of someone to have touched, emphasizing his point by saying, “That would not be my first choice.”
Former employees of the Trump-helmed reality show Celebrity Apprentice tell the Huffington Post that Trump frequently made comments about contestant Khloé Kardashian’s weight, allegedly calling her “the piglet” and asking why it was she and not “the hot one” — purportedly sister Kim — competing on the show. These staffers say that Trump was eager to “fire” Kardashian from the competition because of her appearance. (In 2013, however, Trump decided that the weight that Kim Kardashian had gained while pregnant with daughter North was enough to negate her supposed hotness, telling HLN’s Showbiz Tonight, “She’s gotten a little bit large. I would say this, I don’t think you should dress like you weigh 120 pounds.”)
Former supermodel Vendela Kirsebom tells Britain’s the Daily Mail that being seated next to Trump at a dinner for Vanity Fair magazine in 1993 was “excruciating” and that Trump was preoccupied with talking about “about big breasts, small breasts, how one was better than the other and the differences between them … His main focus was breasts and the sizes of women’s bodies. Fat women were not real women in his opinion … He basically said if you are not attractive and beautiful, then you don’t have any purpose as a woman.”
Oct. 13, 2016
Trump attempts to discredit former People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff’s allegation that he had made unwanted sexual advances to her by saying that she isn’t to be believed because “look at her … I don’t think so.”
Sept. 29, 2016
The Los Angeles Times reports that in a sworn statement from a 2012 labor suit brought against Trump by staff at the Trump National Golf Course in California, the club’s former director of catering said, “I had witnessed Donald Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were ‘not pretty enough’ and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women.”
Sept. 26, 2016
At the first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump, Clinton made mention of the fact that her opponent “has called women pigs, slobs, and dogs.” Trump replied by noting his comments about Rosie O’Donnell — the woman whom he has frequently referred to as a pig and a slob. “I think everybody would agree she deserves it, and nobody feels sorry for her,” he said.
Sept. 6, 2016
Trump tells ABC World News Tonight that Clinton does not have “a presidential look.”
September 2015
Rolling Stone magazine described a scene on Trump’s campaign plane during which he commented on his then challenger for the Republican nomination and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face! … Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! … I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
July 29, 2015
News resurfaces of Trump’s having called an attorney “disgusting” for needing to take a scheduled break to pump breast milk while deposing him in connection to a 2011 litigation involving his real estate holdings. Trump does not deny having then called the woman “disgusting.”
April 6, 2015
Trump says on Twitter that Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post, “is a dog who wrongfully comments on me.”
April 4, 2011
Gail Collins, a columnist with the New York Times, writes that Trump mailed her a copy of a column of hers with which he disagreed with her picture circled and the note “The Face of a Dog!” written over it.
October 2006
Trump gives radio host Howard Stern permission to describe his daughter Ivanka as “a piece of ass” after Trump himself describes her as “very voluptuous” and “beautiful.”
1997
Trump discredits a negative story written about him by Vanity Fair reporter Marie Brenner by calling her “unattractive.” He told New York magazine that in 1992 he poured a bottle of wine down Brenner’s back in retaliation.
1996
Trump calls Miss Universe pageant winner Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy” after she supposedly gained 60 pounds following her pageant win. A year later, he made her exercise in front of media.
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