On Sunday night, many Americans gathered around televisions to watch the live coverage of the second presidential debate. The debate occurred just two days after the release of a video from 2005, in which Donald Trump was seen and heard making lewd comments about women. He talked openly about attempting to have an affair with a married woman, in addition to talking about all the things he would do to women. Some of his remarks included “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,” and “Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
This is not the first instance of Trump being called out for his insulting comments. He has a history of being both sexist and racist. Last night’s debate was the first time since the leak of the 2005 video that Trump and Hillary Clinton, the two major party candidates, were talking and facing off.
The debate quickly became heated, with Trump and Clinton calling each other out on a wide range of topics as the two moderators tried desperately to keep the situation under control. The debate was held in a town hall format, where members of the live audience and social media followers had the opportunity to ask the candidates questions and receive answers. Not surprisingly, the 2005 video came up quickly as a topic of conversation. Anderson Cooper raised the topic to Trump in response to an audience question on whether the candidates felt they were modeling appropriate behavior for today’s youth. He asked, “We received a lot of questions online, Mr. Trump, about the tape that was released on Friday, as you can imagine. You called what you said locker room banter. You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”
Trump’s response left a significant amount to be desired. As was typical of most of his debate responses, Trump proceeded to talk directly around the question. However, this response was even worse than most. He first stated that his comments were just “locker room talk” and said he wasn’t proud of them. Then, somehow, he digressed. “Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. But it’s locker room talk, and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS. We’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment. And I will tell you, I will take care of ISIS.” He took an absolutely massive jump from the video to ISIS in what seemed a last-ditch attempt to simply avoid the question he didn’t want to talk about.
Since that video, many people have pulled their support for Trump, more material has surfaced, and people are calling him out all over social media. The phrase “Let’s Be Clear: Donald #Trump Bragged About #SexualAssault” has been circulating all over my Facebook. Trump’s comments are far more than just “locker room talk”. Sexual assault and related comments are never acceptable, especially from someone who seeks to be the leader of the United States of America.
