A resurfaced video of then-real estate tycoon Donald Trump blaming boxer Mike Tyson's 18-year-old rape victim during a 1992 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman has gone viral amid criticism of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein scandal.
Trump has thus far declined to release the files said to contain detailed lists of some of the late financier, pedophile, and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's most high-profile clients and enablers.
Trump has also tried to distance himself from his years-long friendship with Epstein as news outlets continue to uncover more details about their relationship, such as when he lashed out at The Wall Street Journal for reporting on a happy birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s signature that included a drawing of a nude woman in sharpie pen.
The scandal's impact has tanked Trump's poll numbers—and he's facing even more criticism now that a video of him defending Tyson after he was found guilty of raping 18-year-old Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant, in a hotel room has resurfaced. Following the 1992 verdict, Trump argued that Tyson didn’t necessarily deserve prison time.
Trump told Letterman:
"I think Mike should serve time and everything else ... but here's a woman who was dancing at his door at one o'clock in the morning."
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
Considering how much time Trump spends dismissing the concerns of Republicans and Democrats alike—he's even gone so far as to attack his supporters for focusing on the files he now calls a "conspiracy" orchestrated by Democrats—his words here say it all.
The general consensus?
When people show you who they are, believe them.
Trump and Tyson have shared a friendship for over 30 years. During the 1980s, Trump hosted multiple Tyson boxing matches and was in the running to secure a lucrative fight between Tyson and Evander Holyfield at his Atlantic City casino—a deal that could have earned him millions.
He has also defended Tyson on numerous occasions, such as when he told shock jock Howard Stern that Tyson "walks in a room and the women start grabbing him and grabbing his a** and grabbing anything else they can grab on him.” During the same interview, he referred to Tyson’s guilty verdictc as a “travesty.”
Trump even said that "a lot more good can be done by having Mike Tyson pay a substantial award both to the victim, subject to court approval, and creating a ward for people that were abused or raped in the state of Indiana.” He also told NBC that Tyson's victim was "dancing with a big smile on her face, looked happy as could be" after Tyson raped her.
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