Donald Trump released a statement on his website in response to comments he made to Billy Bush in 2005 that went viral Friday afternoon. The statement addressed Trump's sexist comments about women and read, "Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended."
The video and audio clip from a hot mic conversation was originally published in an article from The Washington Post on Friday.
In the 2005 audio, Trump and NBC's Today show host Billy Bush (who was the host of "Access Hollywood" at the time) discussed women before Trump taped a segment for Access Hollywood on the set of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives."
The "locker room banter" took place just months after Trump married his wife Melania, in January 2005.
In the clip, Trump could be heard saying, "I’ve gotta use some tic-tacs, 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. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything."
Laughter is heard in the background, and Bush said, "Whatever you want."
Trump continued to amused the host with more vulgar remarks: ""Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything!"
In the clip, Trump also talks about pursuing a married woman: "I did try and fuck her. She was married."
The audio was released just after the Republican presidential nominee's Alicia Machado meltdown started to cool off from the first presidential debate. The nominee has often been criticized for not appealing to women. In March, about 70 percent of women voters viewed Donald Trump negatively.
In his statement Friday, Trump wrote off the Access Hollywood conversation: "This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago."
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