In 2005, Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic telling Billy Bush exactly who he is.
“I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
That’s not gossip. That’s not a rumor. That’s him, on tape, in his own voice, bragging about sexual assault. He apologized for it in 2016 — called it “locker room talk.” Then later tried to claim the tape was fake. Access Hollywood went on air to set the record straight: “The tape is very real. He said every one of those words.”
America knew this in 2016. Elected him anyway. America knew this in 2024. Elected him again.
I don’t have a political explanation for that. I have a moral one: a large portion of this country decided that a man who brags about grabbing women without consent is fit to lead it. Twice. Some of those voters are women. Some of them are fathers of daughters.
This tape didn’t sink him. Nothing sinks him. And that tells you something dark about where we are — not just about Trump, but about us.
We don’t just have a Trump problem. We have a this-is-apparently-acceptable problem. And that’s the one I don’t know how to fix.