Donald Trump Says He Insulted Women for 'Entertainment'

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the demeaning and insulting comments toward women that he has made over the years should be considered "entertainment" and do not reflect how he truly feels about them.

"A lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment, there's nobody that has more respect for women than I do," the New York businessman told Las Vegas' KSNV-TV in an interview on Wednesday ahead of a rally in Henderson, Nevada.

Reporter Jim Snyder followed up: "Are you trying to tone it down now?"

"It's not a question of trying, it's very easy," Trump replied.

However, Trump's comments about women are certainly not limited to his pre-political career.

In March, Trump went after the looks of the wife of primary opponent Ted Cruz.

In his Rolling Stone profile of the Republican nominee, writer Paul Solotaroff described a scene on Trump's plane, in which he provided a running commentary of the television news in which Carly Fiorina appeared.

"Look at that face!" Trump exclaimed. "Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!"

Perhaps most famously, during the first Republican primary debate last August, Fox News host and debate moderator Megyn Kelly pressed Trump about misogynistic, sexist comments he has made in the past, such as calling some women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals."

Trump slammed Kelly, saying her questions were "ridiculous" and "off-base."

In an interview the next night, Trump told CNN, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes," adding, "blood coming out of her...wherever."

Democrats have sought to capitalize on Trump's behavior toward women in recent weeks.

At the very end of the first presidential debate, Hillary Clinton attacked Trump for the way he treated a former Miss Universe from 1996.

"And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest — he loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them — and he called this woman 'Miss Piggy,' then he called her 'Miss Housekeeping' because she was Latina," said Clinton.

She continued: "Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado. And she has become a U.S. citizen and you can bet she is going to vote this November."

Trump, seemingly caught off-guard, shot back: "Where did you find this?"

The next morning Trump called into Fox News to defend and double down on his treatment of Machado.

"She was impossible ... She was the winner and you know she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem," Trump said. "And (Clinton) found the girl and talked about her like she was Mother Teresa and it wasn't quite that way, but that's OK. Hillary has to do what she has to do."

In recent national polling, Clinton leads head-to-head match-ups against Trump, with the Democrat holding 48.1 percent support compared to 44.2 percent for the New York businessman, according to averages compiled by RealClear Politics.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons