President Donald Trump may be more disconnected from reality than we thought. In a long piece about why he has failed to distance himself from Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama despite the increasing number of sexual misconduct allegations, the New York Times reports that the commander in chief seems to be peddling an alternate version of history. Trump allegedly “suggested” to a senator earlier this year that the tape in which he can be heard boasting about how being famous meant he could “grab” women “by the pussy” without consequences “was not authentic,” according to the Times. He also peddled that same information to an adviser recently.
This would mark a remarkable change for Trump, who acknowledged the voice heard in the now-infamous tape was his shortly after it was revealed in October 2016. After all, he did apologize for the words, which he characterized as typical “locker room” banter.
Now he apparently sees the repeated calls for Moore to step aside as similar to the outcries that followed the release of that Access Hollywood tape. The Times explains:
Mr. Trump has been particularly open to the idea, pushed by Mr. Moore’s defenders, that the candidate is being wrongly accused, even as Mr. McConnell and a parade of other Republicans have said they believe the accusers. When a group of senators gathered with the president in the White House last week to discuss the tax overhaul, it took little to get Mr. Trump onto the topic of Mr. Moore — and he immediately offered up the same it-was-40-years-ago defense, according to officials at the meeting.
