LAGUNA NIGUEL, CALIFORNIA — (CNN) Ivanka Trump called her father’s lewd and sexually aggressive comments caught on a leaked 2005 “Access Hollywood” hot mic “crude” at an event Wednesday.
“He recognizes it was crude language,” she said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit. “He was embarrassed that he had said those things and he apologized.”
Ivanka Trump, the Republican presidential nominee’s oldest daughter, said her father does not consistently speak the way he does on the tape.
“That’s not language consistent with any conversation I’ve ever had with him, certainly, or any conversation I’ve overheard. So it was a bit jarring for me to hear,” she said. “And he was very sincere in his apology.”
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Trump apologized for bragging in a private conversation about being able to grope women and get away with it, actions that would amount to sexual assault, in a tape first reported by the Washington Post, though he’s also used the report as pivot to talk about former President Bill Clinton’s past indiscretions.
At the second presidential debate just days after the footage went public, Trump dismissed his words as “locker room talk” and denied ever grabbing a woman’s private parts without her permission.
However, since then at least nine women have gone public accusing Trump of various degrees of sexual misconduct including touching them in a sexual way uninvited.
Trump has completely denied all of the allegations and CNN has been unable to independently verify their accounts.
As Trump’s place in the polls has declined, he has increasingly complained about elections being rigged, something even many within his own party have dismissed.
But when asked if she agreed that the election was “rigged,” the candidate’s daughter chose to focus on media coverage.
“I will tell you that the media has been vicious,” she said. “And we take it personally.”
Trump’s words come a couple of days after Melania Trump defended he husband in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Melania Trump, in her first interview since the Republican nominee faced allegations of sexual misconduct, called those accusations “lies” and saying Trump was “egged on” into “boy talk” during a 2005 tape in which he made lewd comments about women.
“I believe my husband. I believe my husband,” she said Monday. “This was all organized from the opposition. And with the details … did they ever check the background of these women? They don’t have any facts.”
While Ivanka Trump has often hit the trail on behalf of her father and promoted some of his policies, she rejects the idea that she is his surrogate.
“I hate the word surrogate cause what does that mean,” she said. “I don’t express my views on policy with one exception as it relates to child care and advocating for women because I never thought I’d have this platform but it was incredibly important to me that I contribute to that conversation.”
“But no I’m not a surrogate. I’m a daughter,” Trump added. “I do dismiss this idea of a surrogate because I don’t think it appreciates the role that I’m playing as my father’s daughter.”
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