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Melania Reportedly Refused To Appear On TV With Trump After The ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape

by Molly Longman
Alex Wong/Getty Images News/Getty Images

News surrounding Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book is getting juicer and juicer. One of the latest revelations is about the first lady’s reaction after the infamous Access Hollywood tape was made public before the 2016 presidential election. Woodward writes that Melania Trump reportedly refused to appear on TV with her husband at the time.

The Guardian acquired a copy of Woodward’s newest book, Fear: Trump in the White House, and wrote about some of the most shocking revelations. The Access Hollywood news was one of them. The Guardian describes a passage in the book in which it’s noted that first lady Trump was “adamantly opposed during the campaign to appearing on television at her husband’s side as part of damage control after the publication of an Access Hollywood tape in which he described groping women ‘by the pu**y.’”

“‘Not doing that,’ Melania said in her Slovenian accent, dismissively waving her hand,” Woodward writes, according to The Guardian. “‘No way. No, no, no.’”

Trump’s spokesperson Stephanie Grisham has not yet responded to Bustle’s request for comment. However, it’s not unlikely that the president will rebuke the claims in Woodward’s book. When the first few parts of the Woodward book were released on Tuesday — a week before the book was to be released — President Trump denied claims in the explosive book, CNN reported. He noted on Tuesday in a tweet: “The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources.”

But Melania Trump’s adverse reaction may not come as a surprise to many — if you’ll recall the tape featured the president bragging about groping women without consent. It was released only weeks before the November 2016 election. Trump condemned her husband’s language in a statement back in 2016 when the tape was originally released and after President Donald Trump issued an apology.

"The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me,” Melania Trump said in a statement at the time, according to The Hill. “This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world."

Melania Trump has been known to buck her husband on some issues, from going to the border to choosing Africa as her first trip as first lady. The claim in the book as The Guardian reported it could be another example of the first lady going against her husband. Basically, Melania has at least seemed to stand against her husband some issues.

Ultimately, however, Trump did go on TV to discuss her husband's comments, in an October 2016 interview with CNN. There, she defended him, saying that although she was "surprised," she believed that he was "egged on" and that it was just "boy talk." It's likely she'd dismiss Woodward's claims in similar language, given what the nation has seen so far of the White House's response to the book.