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Trump called 2020 Senate candidate Sara Gideon “very attractive,” according to a new book.
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“Not that I’ve looked at a woman like that in five years, at least five years,” he added.
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Trump “couldn’t resist going into what he might call locker room talk” about Gideon, the book says.
President Donald Trump called Sara Gideon, the 2020 Democratic Senate candidate, “very attractive” in the meeting, adding, “Not that I’ve looked at a woman that way in five years,” according to a forthcoming book by two New York Times reporters.
Authors Jonathan Martins and Alexander Burns detail Trump’s involvement in downballot races and 2020 meetings with party leaders in their forthcoming book “This Will Not Pass,” which Insider obtained ahead of its May 3 release.
Then-Senate majority Mitch McConnell, they wrote, tried to avoid races in which Trump disliked the Republican incumbent, such as Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins, who openly criticized and broke with Trump on important issues during his presidency.
But during “several meetings” with Senate Republicans and campaign strategists, “Trump couldn’t resist joining in on what he might call locker room talk” about Gideon, “the telegenic speaker of the Maine House of Representatives,” the statement said. book.
“Sara Gideon — very attractive. Very attractive,” Trump said on one occasion, according to the book, before adding, “not that I’ve looked at a woman that way in five years — at least five years.”
Trump has been married to his third wife, former First Lady Melania Trump, since 2005. He denies allegations that he had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal from 2006 to 2007 and that he had sex with porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2006. Since the 1970s, at least 26 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, including assault.
During the meetings, Trump would “sway between edicts of intimidation” against Republicans he saw as disloyal and “play the class clown in front of a howling audience,” the authors wrote.
A common target at Trump’s broadside was former Arizona Senator Martha McSally, who, according to the book, has been called “a terrible candidate” by Trump and “no one likes her.”
Gideon ran a high-profile campaign against Collins, who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997, in hopes of capitalizing on the mounting liberal anger against Collins — and in particular over her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Despite Gideon Collins raising significantly more money and spending more, bringing in a dazzling $74 million for her campaign and spending more than $62 million, the incumbent party was resolutely re-elected by more than eight percentage points — even when President Joe Biden left the state. easily wore in the presidential race.
Trump representatives did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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