WASHINGTON — The veteran Washington Post reporter who broke Friday’s bombshell story capturing Donald Trump making vulgar comments said he was surprised by Trump’s language — even though he has been reporting on the GOP nominee for months.
“The fact that he’s not just describing the attractiveness of a woman, he’s not just sort of leering at a woman. He’s actually describing his own behavior. He’s saying, ‘I did this and I will do this again. This is what I do when I meet beautiful women.’ That’s what surprised me the most,” David Fahrenthold told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday.
The video — for which Trump later apologized — surfaced on Friday and was previously unaired footage from “Access Hollywood.” It included Trump on a bus recalling to Billy Bush about a time he tried to “fuck” a married woman. Trump then goes on to say he is can grope women because of his “star” status.”
“I better use some tic tacks just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy,” Trump said in the audio.
Fahrenthold also said he was shocked by the language Trump used.
“I mean this is a guy, we’re familiar with his voice, we’re familiar with the way he’s acted on television, (but) we’ve never heard him use this kind of language,” Fahrenthold said.
According to The Washington Post, Fahrenthold was given a tip about the audio by a source Friday morning.
Sources at NBC told CNNMoney’s Brian Stelter Friday that they believe someone inside NBC downloaded the footage from one of the network’s video servers. The tape was accessible internally since the “Access” story was already in the works.
