Donald Trump Is Not Surprised By Harvey Weinstein Sexual Harassment Allegations

A year after the release of Donald Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” tape documenting his salacious comments towards women, the president wants the public to know he isn’t “surprised” about the sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood producer and The Weinstein Company co-founder Harvey Weinstein.

“I’ve known Harvey Weinstein for a long time,” Trump told reporters outside the White House, as seen in a video posted online by CNN Saturday. “I’m not at all surprised to see it.”

When asked by one of the reporters if he thinks Weinstein’s actions were inappropriate, Trump responded by saying, “Well, he says they were inappropriate.”

CNN reporter Elizabeth Landers tweeted that she asked POTUS how Weinstein’s behavior differed from the lewd comments he made in the “Access Hollywood” tape. In response, Trump brushed off the tape, in which he brags about groping women, chalking it up once again to “locker room talk.” (Trump used the same explanation when the video was first released.)

.@potus just said "not at all surprised" by the Harvey Weinstein comments.

I asked him how that was different from Access Hollywood tape

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) October 7, 2017

The President told me that was "locker room talk" and then moved on the next question.

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) October 7, 2017

Both Trump and Weinstein have been accused of sexual misconduct.

Following the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, a number of women came forward with allegations against the former “Apprentice” host, though he has denied any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, last week Weinstein was the subject of a bombshell New York Times article that detailed a number of damning accusations of sexual harassment against the producer.

“I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go,” Weinstein said in a statement, not denying the allegations.

Since the report was published, the Miramax founder said that he would take a leave of absence from his role at The Weinstein Company. The company’s board members will reportedly suspend Weinstein pending an investigation into the accusations against him, according to The Associated Press.

Also on HuffPost

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

That Megyn Kelly had blood coming out of her 'wherever.'

Trump kicked off the early days of his presidential run in style by famously saying that Fox News' Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her wherever" after she moderated a GOP debate and questioned Trump for having previously labeled women "fat pigs" and "dogs." (He also retweeted a comment calling Kelly a "bimbo.")

That no one could possibly vote for Carly Fiorina because of her face.

Back when Fiorina was still vying for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump took aim at her looks in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "Look at that face!" he said. "Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!" Trump then attempted to backpedal, saying he was talking about her persona, not her physical appearance.

That Hillary Clinton was disgusting for going to the bathroom...

In December, Trump mocked Clinton for being a few minutes late returning to the stage during a Democratic debate saying, "I know where she went, it's disgusting, I don't want to talk about it." It's not the first time Trump has expressed revulsion at women needing to occasionally go to the bathroom, telling Howard Stern in 2004 that it was amazing he'd never seen any evidence that Melania Trump actually poops.

...and that she got 'schlonged' by Obama in the 2008 campaign.

Clinton gracefully exited the 2008 presidential campaign when it became clear that she was not going win, and not only went on to endorse Obama, but also worked for him. Trump, however, characterized the loss in less tactful terms, saying she got "schlonged."

That women who get abortions should be punished.

In a March interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Trump said "there has to be some form of punishment" for abortion if it were to ever be banned in the United States -- and that punishment should fall on women. Yet again, Trump later tried to backtrack, clarifying that the person performing the abortion should be held legally responsible, not the woman -- a stance that's not really any more supportive of women's fundamental right to control their own bodies.

That the only card Hillary Clinton has is the 'woman card.'

One could argue that Clinton has a lot of "cards" to play that might endear her to voters, like the fact that she spent years managing the State Department, or that she fought to get 9/11 first responders health care. But according to Trump, Clinton has only one card, and that's the "woman card." You know, the one that also gets you a discount on your salary and that also makes you more likely to live in poverty and to be sexually assaulted, among innumerable other benefits.

That as a Muslim woman, Ghazala Khan probably isn't allowed to speak.

After Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier who died in Iraq, spoke out against Trump at the Democratic convention, Trump responded by publicly fighting with the family, saying at one point in an interview with ABC that perhaps Khan's wife, Ghazala, didn't speak herself because she "wasn't allowed to have anything to say." The assumption being that all Muslim women are voiceless and subservient to their husbands.

Khan then explained her decision not to speak in a devastating piece for The Washington Post. "Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself," she wrote. "What mother could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?"

That he'd expect his daughter to just quit if she was harassed at work.

Trump displayed his keen understanding of the kinds of obstacles women he workplace face and the protections they deserve when he told a USA Today columnist that if his daughter were ever to be sexually harassed at work, he hopes she'd just move on. “I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case," he said.

That Hillary Clinton's brain doesn't work...

At a rally this summer, Trump added fuel to the Hillary-is-unhealthy fire (and tapped into the long history of discrediting women by calling them crazy, hormonal and biologically unfit to hold positions of power) by saying she has a "short-circuit" in her brain. "She's got problems," Trump claimed. "Honestly, I don't think she's all there." 

...and that *maybe* someone could just shoot her.

At a rally this summer, Trump first warned that if Clinton is allowed to nominate Supreme Court justices there is "nothing you can do, folks.” But then he added: “Although, the Second Amendment people. Maybe there is. I don’t know.” Trump's team attempted to clarify that he was not actually promoting the idea of shooting the first woman to ever secure the Democratic nomination; rather, he was trying to energize people to turn out to the polls.

But Trump once again invoked the threat of gun violence against Clinton this fall, suggesting that her bodyguards should stop protecting her because of her thoughts on gun control, and "see what happens to her."

26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2013

That ranking women's looks is all in good fun.

Trump recently said that if he'd known he was going to run for president some day, he wouldn't have gone on Howard Stern's show in the past, where he assigned actresses numerical rankings based on what he thinks about their looks and analyzed their f**kability. But he also stood by those conversations, saying they were all in jest. "We have fun," he said of going on Stern's show. "So we’ll talk about women, we’ll talk about men, we’ll talk about everything, and we’re all having a good time." Ha.

That Hillary Clinton doesn't have a 'presidential look.'

On several occasions, Trump has suggested that Clinton doesn't look like most presidents, an objective truth given that she is the first woman ever nominated by a major political party to run for the office. "I just don’t think she has a presidential look," Trump told ABC News. "And you need a presidential look."

In the first presidential debate, Trump was once again given the opportunity to address his comments. He attempted to clarify that what he really meant was that she doesn't have the stamina to be president. 

That Roger Ailes has helped the women who have accused him of harassment.

Ailes, the former CEO of Fox News, was accused by many women of sexual harassment, including former news host Gretchen Carlson (with whom Fox News recently settled). But Trump defended Ailes, telling "Meet the Press": "I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he's helped them."

That Alicia Machado's weight was 'a real problem.'

In the first presidential debate, Clinton attacked Trump for his history of criticizing women's looks and bodies, focusing on the specific example of Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe who says Trump called her "Miss Piggy" (after she gained some weight) and "Miss Housekeeping" (because she is Latina). 

The day after the debate, Trump defended fat shaming Machado, telling "Fox and Friends" that "she was the worst we ever had." “She was a winner, and she gained a massive amount of weight, and we had a real problem," he said. "We had a real problem with her.”

That he'd be good for women.

“I’m going to be really good for women,” Trump said in March. “I’m going to be good for women’s health issues.” And that claim may be the biggest insult of all.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.