Trump Roasted for Reportedly Claiming 2005 Tape Is Fake

Access Hollywood anchors are calling President Trump out after he reportedly suggested a 2005 Access Hollywood recording was fake. On Monday's broadcast, host Natalie Morales made it clear that Trump boasted about sexual misconduct, including grabbing women "by the pussy," in the tape. "Let us make this perfectly clear, the tape is very real" and Trump said "every one of those" words, Morales said, per the New York Daily News. She was addressing a Saturday article in the New York Times focusing on Trump's backing of Roy Moore. It noted Trump "suggested to a senator earlier this year that [the tape] was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently," despite confirming its authenticity and offering an apology last October.

At that time, Trump brushed off the tape as decade-old "locker room talk," adding, "Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course." Morales wasn't the only one to recall this. "Are you insane? … You admitted it was real," Seth Meyers said of the tape on Monday's Late Night, per the Huffington Post. Meanwhile, Chris Cillizza at CNN suggests "Trump is simply creating a conspiracy theory—based on little or no evidence—that suits his purposes" and "knows exactly what he is doing." Asked about the tape Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump "made his position clear" a year ago, reports CNN. "The president hasn't changed his position. I think if anything, what the president questions is the media's reporting on that accurately," she added. (More President Trump stories.)