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How Donald Trump Has Talked About Sexual Harassment

Here’s how Trump has described workplace sexual harassment and discrimination over the years.
Image: Republican U.S. Presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign event at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio
Republican U.S. Presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign event at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Eric ThayerERIC THAYER / Reuters

Republican nominee Donald Trump has made plenty of headlines this week, including new comments about sexual harassment.

In an interview with USA Today, Trump said Monday that his daughter, Ivanka, would not put up with harassment. “I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case,” Trump told the paper, responding to a question about former Fox News chief Roger Ailes' alleged harassment at the cable network.

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For her part, Ivanka Trump called sexual harassment "inexcusable in any setting" and condemned all harassment, "sexual or otherwise," in an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Sustern on Tuesday night.

"We have a very strong HR team at the Trump Organization who is equipped to deal with these issues if they arise. And you hope they never arise," she said. "You hope you have a culture in which they don't arise. But when they do, it needs to be dealt with swiftly."

Trump's son, Eric, told CBS "This Morning" on Tuesday that Ivanka wouldn't “allow herself to be subjected” to such sexual harassment in the workplace.

This wasn't Trump’s first remark on the issue of sexual harassment. Here’s how Trump has described workplace sexual harassment and discrimination over the years.

What did they expect?

Responding in 2013 to a Pentagon report that saw surging numbers of unreported sexual assaults and few prosecutions in the military, Trump blamed gender integration (and the “very dumb politicians” he believes instituted military integration)

I didn't say that, but I’ve heard worse.

When the New York Times reported that a field organizer previously employed by his campaign had alleged sexual discrimination on the job and harassment by the candidate himself, Trump both denied and diminished the accusation -- that he'd told two young women "could do a lot of damage" with their looks.

“That is not the worst thing that could be said,” he told the paper in January 2015. “But I never said it. It’s not in my vocabulary.”

He did not respond to the other accusations, that the woman was paid less and treated differently than her male counterparts.

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It was a joke.

When asked during an August 2015 Fox News debate about his remark to a "Celebrity Apprentice" contestant that it "must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees,” Trump said the suggestion that his remarks were inappropriate was akin to being “politically correct.” Trump said he often makes such comments in jest.

“And frankly, what I say, and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding. We have a good time. What I say is what I say,” he said.

It's 'nothing’

After the New York Times published a lengthy piece in May of this year describing Trump’s private interactions with women -- including reportedly routine comments on employee’s bodies, both welcome and unwelcome, sexual boasting in the office, and staffing decisions that were made on looks -– Trump declared that the “failing” newspaper had “found nothing.”

He repeatedly championed a source in the story who disputed the paper's characterization, though not the facts of the story, and argued that it was a "hit piece."