Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,”while discussing the lewd comments Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made while being recorded in 2005 on a hot microphone, Republican political consultant Mary Matalin said Trump was not a “sexual predator,” but instead a “locker room lewd ass talker.”
Partial transcript as follows:
DOWD: I was mentioned a couple of times. First of all, this isn’t just words. This isn’t boys will be boys. This is somebody celebrating sexual predation, right. And in the 1990s, as Mary just mentioned, the Republicans went out of their way saying that a sexual predator shouldn’t be in the White House.
CASTELLANOS: And he was reelected.
DOWD: Wait, wait. I’m not saying. Wait a second. I’m talking about hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. And now in 2016, Republicans are making the argument — some Republicans are making the argument that it’s OK to put a sexual predator back in the White House. At some point…
MATLIN: Sexual predator? Big talker. Locker room talker.
DOWD: What did he say? This is what I do. This is what I do.
CASTELLANOS: Well, look, he may say — he may have said something…
DOWD: So, he’s either lying or he does it.
MATLIN: He is a Locker room lewd ass talker.
(CROSSTALK)
REP. KEITH ELLISON, (D) MINNESOTA: Let me say, I agree with Alex that there are underlying forces here, but not the ones he says. The underlying thing here is that women all across this country dealing with sexual harassers
all the time and whether you’re talking about Roger Ailes or whether you’re talking about this McDonald’s lawsuit, or — I mean, this is a reality for a lot of working women every single day. That issue, everybody who has had to worry about some supervisor leaning on them, hitting on them as they’re just trying to make a living, those people need to get to the polls, because that’s what’s on the line right here.CASTELLANOS: I agree with you, congressman. But can we apply the same standard that we applied when Bill Clinton took advantage?
ELLISON: Bill Clinton is not on the…
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: Bill Clinton told us the standard.
ELLISON: Nice bait and switch.
CASTELLANOS: Private morality.
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s bring in Stephanie here, and then I want to go back…
STEPHANIE CUTTER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: If that’s what Donald Trump is going to do tonight. If he is going to say, hey, I’m sorry, but he did it too, that’s not going to win him — not you.
ELLISON: But I wouldn’t take it from my cable — oh, yeah, somebody else did it too, dad.
CUTTER: Two wrongs don’t make a right, but he’s not going to win back one Republican who has abandoned him and he’s not going to gain one more vote.
CASTELLANOS: Absolutely true.
CUTTER: And this wouldn’t — we wouldn’t be having this conversation — yes, it is terrible thing for him to be admitting that he sexually assaulted women. He admitted that. But this comes in a long line of abuse and assaults on women. This isn’t an isolated incident.
CASTELLANOS: When Hillary Clinton is on the ballot.
CUTTER: But, Alex.
CASTELLANOS: Look, that’s not his argument.
CUTTER: The question is whether Donald Trump should be the president of the United States? And I think the answer to that question, the answer is no.
MATLIN: Whatever women are experiencing in the workplace, I’m not discounting that and I’m not defending him, but on the radio today, three out of four voters said they will cast their vote based on health care. Their coverage has gone up, their premiums have doubled, their deductibles are sky-rocketed and their care has been cut in half. But that’s part of this underlying what’s going on out there? And we’re all talking about the Venezuela tarts and everything.
CASTELLANOS: This election has nothing to do with government?
MATLIN: Or policy.
DOWD: It actually has to do with values. Table stakes for a president is can I trust this person, does this person look out for me, does this person care about me and whose interests are they advocating in this?
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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