Ivanka Trump tearfully advocated for her father to apologize after his now-infamous “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced last year, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The tape, which The Washington Post released in October, features Donald Trump bragging to TV host Billy Bush in 2005 about grabbing women “by the pussy.”
The Times reports that Ivanka Trump “made an emphatic case for a full-throated apology” after she viewed the tape, according to “several people who were present for the crisis discussion” in her father’s office after the video was released.
According to the Times, that conversation did not go well: “As she spoke, Mr. Trump remained unyielding. His daughter’s eyes welled with tears, her face reddened, and she hurried out in frustration.”
Donald Trump eventually apologized for his lewd language, saying, “Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am ... I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”
But the then-Republican nominee also sought to dismiss the controversy by saying it was “nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we are facing today” and by alluding to former President Bill Clinton’s past infidelity.
Shortly after the “Access Hollywood” video was released, Ivanka Trump issued her own statement to Fast Company:
“My father’s comments were clearly inappropriate and offensive and I’m glad that he acknowledged this fact with an immediate apology to my family and the American people.”
Previously, she had called her father “an equal opportunity offender” who has “said plenty of rough things about men over the years” whenever he was accused of sexist behavior.