Trump On Nasty Remarks About Women: ‘I Never Thought I’d Run For Office’

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks at the Wright Brothers Aero Hangar at a campaign rally, Saturday, March 12, 2016, in Vandalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Confronted with an ad attacking him on his past comments about women, Donald Trump dismissed his previous remarks by explaining he “never thought I would run for office.”

“Many people, you know, Howard Stern would interview me and everybody would be having fun and the women would be laughing,” Donald Trump said while calling into Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes’ show Monday morning.

Sykes had played audio from an anti-Trump ad featuring women reading past disparaging remarks Trump had made, including calling women “bimbo,” “dog” and “fat pig.”

Sykes also pressed Trump on other comments he’s made in the past, including criticisms of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). Trump blamed the remarks on Time Magazine, where he said he read those criticisms.

“I can only say what I took from Time Magazine,” Trump said. “If Time Magazine’s wrong, then they should apologize.”

Sykes grilled Trump on the recent spat between him and Ted Cruz over their respective wives, too.

Trump accused Cruz of starting the fight by running an ad in Utah that featured a photo of his wife modeling nude for GQ in 2000. The Facebook ad was actually created by an anti-Trump super PAC, not by the Cruz campaign. Nevertheless, Trump responded by retweeting an unflattering picture of Cruz’s wife Heidi.

Sykes countered that he would “expect that from a 12-year-old bully on a playground. Not someone who wants the office held by Abraham Lincoln.”

The radio host went on to grill Trump about his past donations to Democrats, the consequences of his trade policies, poll numbers showing he would lose to Hillary Clinton in a general election and how he planned to work with Congress as president.

“Before you called into my show, did you know that I was a #NeverTrump guy?” Sykes asked.

“That I didn’t know,” Trump responded.

Listen to the full interview below:

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: