Tim Kaine: Trump tape suggests "pattern of sexual assault"
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said Sunday that the 2005 video showing Donald Trump’s lewd remarks about women show a “pattern of assaultive behavior.”
“I think the tape raises an awful lot of questions, and if you take that tape as Donald as accurately describing his actions then yeah, it’s a pattern of assaultive behavior and it’s much more than words,” Kaine said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Kaine said he doesn’t personally know whether Trump acted on his words, but pointed to media coverage in the last two days in which women have confirmed Trump made advances toward them like the ones he described in the tape.
“My understanding is that there are stories in some papers today with individuals basically saying they were subject to exactly the treatment he describes on the tape so this would be a question for Donald Trump to answer,” he said.
As for tonight’s town-hall style debate, where the first round of questioning will reportedly focus on the Trump tape, Kaine said he expects the undecided voters in the audience will want to hear Trump explain himself.
His statement trying to say look I regret these words -- it’s not just words, it really is talking about a pattern of sexual assault,” he said. “And so I just, I can’t imagine that undecided voters that are part of this town hall will not want to hear him explain why he thought this was acceptable behavior.”
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week” Sunday morning, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — a Trump ally who spent part of yesterday hunkered down with the candidate at Trump Tower — did not dispute the idea that what Trump was describing in the tape is sexual assault.
“That’s what he’s talking about. You know, whether it happened or not, I don’t know, and how much exaggeration was involved in that, I don’t know,” he said. “I do know there’s a tendency on the part of some men at different times to exaggerate things like this, and I’m not in any way trying to excuse it or condone it. There is no excuse or answer for it other than, ‘I’m very sorry and I wish I hadn’t done it. And I’m not like that anymore.’”