- The tape showed Trump caught on a hot mic bragging about his attempts to kiss women without asking, and advising to "grab 'em by the pussy."
- When the tape was played to Trump's 2016 campaign team, he appeared "frightened" to see her, a source told "The Art of Her Deal" author Mary Jordan. An excerpt of the book was published on CBS News .
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Trump was so scared of Melania when the Access Hollywood tape came out, it took him 2 hours to summon up the courage to face her, new book says
Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump hesitated two hours before facing Melania Trump when the Access Hollywood tape resurfaced in October 2016, according to a new book of the First Lady.
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Donald Trump took two hours to face his wife after the infamous Access Hollywood tape was released in 2016, according to a new book about Melania Trump.
An excerpt from "The Art of Her Deal," the forthcoming profile of the First Lady by Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan, was published on CBS News .
It includes detail on the immediate fallout when Trump, then a presidential candidate, was first shown the 11-year-old footage in which he spoke lewdly to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about trying to "f---" married women, and where he said: "Grab 'em by the pussy."
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Trump, along with then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and several other advisers, were shown the tape by then-campaign press secretary Hope Hicks on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, according to Jordan.
Melania, who had been married to Trump at the time of the recording, was "the elephant not in the room," Christie is quoted as saying.
The Washington Post published the 2005 tape on October 7, 2016, one month before the presidential election.
trump billy bush access hollywood NBC
NBC
According to Jordan's telling, the room went dead silent after the tape was shown.
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One unnamed person in the room told Jordan: "He turned red; red was coming up his neck to his ears. I think he understood early on that it was going to create ramifications for him at home, too."
Christie told Jordan: "Everybody was saying, 'You should go upstairs and see Melania. Why don't you go upstairs now and see Melania?' And he was not rushing to go up there."
"I said to him, 'It ain't going to get any easier. The longer you wait, it's not going to get any easier,'" Christie reportedly added.
An unnamed sourced told Jordan: "That night he seemed frightened to go face his wife."
First lady Melania Trump at a wreath laying ceremony with President Donald Trump at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington in commemoration of the Memorial Day holiday in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., May 25, 2020.
Erin Scott/Reuters
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The excerpt also revealed Melania's reportedly cool reaction when Trump finally got in the elevator to see her upstairs two hours later.
According to Jordan, Melania had been a strong believer in her husband's presidential chances, and was more concerned about Trump having ruined those chances, Jordan said.
Ten days after the leak, on October 216, Melania defended her husband in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper . The comments were just "boy talk" that he had been egged on to join, she told Cooper, adding that she had accepted Trump's apology.
The White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Jordan's book has also reported that Melania Trump refused to move into the White House in 2017 to renegotiate her prenup, and shed light on tensions between the First Lady and Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter.
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- Read more:
- Melania Trump renegotiated her prenup by refusing to move into the White House in 2017, according to a new book
- Ivanka Trump tried to rename the First Lady's Office the 'First Family Office' but was blocked by Melania, new book says
- Trump's niece is publishing a tell-all book that says she leaked tax documents to help The New York Times investigate the president's finances
See Also:
- Trump's niece is publishing a tell-all book that says she leaked tax documents to help The New York Times investigate the president's finances
- Ivanka Trump tried to rename the First Lady's Office the 'First Family Office' but was blocked by Melania, new book says
- The life and career of Candace Owens, the Black conservative activist who attacked Black Lives Matter and said George Floyd was 'not a good person'
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