Twitter Eviscerates Melania Trump for Dismissing Her Husband’s Sexually Aggressive Language as ‘Boy Talk’
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Melania Trump sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday, speaking publicly for the first time about a video tape that emerged earlier this month featuring her husband boasting about committing sexual assault, as well as the growing number of women who've come forward in recent weeks alleging the Republican nominee made unwanted sexual advances against them in the past.
Melania Trump remained poised throughout the interview, answering a majority of the softball questions with highly scripted responses and her signature smoldering gaze. But while she managed to display a suitable allegiance to her sexual predator of a husband, some highlights from the interview really set the internet ablaze—chief among them, when she dismissed Donald Trump’s blatant bragging about sexual assault as “boys talk” and claimed Billy Bush “egged on” her husband during their 2005 conversation.
“…I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on,” Melania Trump told Cooper. “Because they were kind of a boy talk, and he was led on, like egged on, from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.” Trump went on to joke that sometimes she feels like she has two boys at home, one son Barron Trump and the other the man currently running for the highest office in the land.
Melania Trump’s flippant reaction to a powerful man claiming he can “grab [women] by the pussy” simply because he’s famous, as well as her suggestion that the whole thing was really Billy Bush’s fault did not sit well with the internet. The latter claim even prompted its own hashtag, #BillyBushMadeMeDoIt.
Everybody, cut Melania some slack. She's just trying to be a good parent to her husband.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) October 18, 2016
Melania's "boys will be boys" attitude is why rape culture is so ingrained in a male belief system and judiciary @realDonaldTrump
— Morris Dallacosta (@MoDaCoatLFPress) October 18, 2016
hey melania quick follow up: when you say that boys talk about "this or that" did you mean sexual assault or?
— jake (@jakebeckman) October 18, 2016
I hope men are just as insulted as women that Melania just explained the predator behavior of a 59-year-old man as "boy talk."
— Elizabeth Plank (@feministabulous) October 18, 2016
Rich white men get to be 59-year-old teenagers. Also, teenagers regularly boast about committing sexual assault. This is Melania's logic.
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) October 18, 2016
"Help, #BillyBushMadeMeDoIt!" pic.twitter.com/UNbkPy0nL9
— Cristiano Lima (@ludacristiano) October 17, 2016
Billy Bush, according to Melania. pic.twitter.com/fVdesrbLSq
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) October 18, 2016
Observers also found some prime irony in Melania Trump’s insistence that as first lady she would focus on cyber bullying. Pressed on whether she has any influence over her husband’s notorious penchant for unleashing Twitter tirades against his enemies, Melania responded—amazingly—that her husband “is an adult” (and you know, adults will be boys).
Best revelation of the night is when this man becomes POTUS https://t.co/gw1xNfx3Nc Melania will devote herself to fighting cyber bullying!
— Lucia Graves (@lucia_graves) October 18, 2016
If Melania really wants to do something about cyber bullying she can start by taking away Donald’s phone.
— Touré (@Toure) October 18, 2016
Melania says she is against bullying and that negativity is not healthy pic.twitter.com/O0GFi9M0SN
— Jessi Klein (@jessirklein) October 18, 2016
