Stormy Daniels On 60 Minutes: 5 Most Cringeworthy Moments

Millions of viewers tuned in for Anderson Cooper's highly anticipated Stormy Daniels interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” Sunday. Early numbers suggest the interview was the most-watched since Barack and Michelle Obama appeared on the show in 2008 after he won his first term as president.

Daniels, 39, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was reportedly paid $130,000 days before the 2016 presidential election to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump a decade earlier. The payoff could raise election-law questions for Trump if the funds came from his campaign. Despite having signed the non-disclosure agreement prepared by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump never signed it, so Daniels says she's free to talk about their relationship.

Daniels said she was “perfectly fine saying nothing at all,” but that she is “not OK with being made to out to be a liar. Of those who have tried to attach her story to thousands of women who have shared stories of sexual harassment and assault in the #MeToo movement, she said: “I think trying to use me to — to further someone else's agenda, does horrible damage to people who are true victims.”

Trump's lawyer has said he will seek to collect $20 million in damages from Daniels for violating the confidentiality agreement.

Here are five cringe-worthy moments from the “60 Minutes” interview:

Daniels spanked Donald Trump with a magazine that had his photo on the cover. She said she met him at his hotel suite after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006. He kept talking about himself, she told Cooper, so she said someone should spank him.

"And I said, you know, ‘Give me that,’ and I just remember him going, 'You wouldn't.'

“ ‘Hand it over.’ And, so he did, and I was like, ‘turn around, drop 'em.’

“So he turned around and pulled his pants down a little — you know had underwear on and stuff and I just gave him a couple swats.”

Daniels said she had unprotected sex with Trump once, after their initial meeting in 2006. When she returned from using the the restroom, he was “perched” on the edge of the bed. She said she wasn’t attracted to him and didn’t want to have sex.

“I realized exactly what I'd gotten myself into. And I was like, ‘Ugh, here we go,’ ” she said, laughing. And I just felt like maybe — it was sort of — I had it coming for making a bad decision for going to someone's room alone and I just heard the voice in my head, ‘well, you put yourself in a bad situation and bad things happen, so you deserve this.’ ”

She said she didn’t say “no,” and emphasized she was not a victim.

Daniels said she was threatened by Trump’s associates after she agreed to sell her story to a sister publication of In Touch magazine for $15,000. Two former employees of the magazine told “60 Minutes” the story never ran because Cohen threatened a lawsuit and Daniels was never paid.

She said she was threatened by a man who approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot as she was preparing to go to a fitness class with her infant daughter. She was retrieving the gear new moms travel with “and a guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.’ And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”

Daniels said she “absolutely” took the encounter as a direct threat. She never saw the person again, but said that she would recognize him “right away.”

Daniels said her relationship with Trump was never a secret. After their initial meeting, Trump continued to stay in touch with Daniels, dangling an appearance on "Celebrity Apprentice" throughout their relationship. She said he invited her to a Trump Vodka launch party in California and to Trump Tower in New York.

“He never asked me not to tell anyone,” she said. “He called several times when I was in front of many people and I would be like, ‘Oh my God, he's calling.’ They were like, ‘Shut up, the Donald?’ And I'd put him on speakerphone, and he wanted to know what I was up to and, ‘When can we get together again?’ I just wanted to give you a quick update, we had a meeting, it went great. There's — it's gonna be spectacular, they're totally into the idea,’ and I was like mhmm that part I never believed.”

Daniels said Trump made her watch an entire documentary about shark attacks. She agreed to meet him at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles in July 2007 to discuss her possible appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

“He was watching ‘Shark Week.’ He made me sit and watch an entire documentary about shark attacks,” Daniels said.

She said she rebuffed his overtures to have sex and after four hours, said, ‘Well, before, you know, can we talk about what's the development?’ And he was like, ‘I'm almost there. I'll have an answer for you next week.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, cool. Well — I guess call me next week.”

Daniels said Trump called her the following month and said he hadn’t been able to get her on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

Photo: The actress Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, arrives to perform at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9, 2018, in Pompano Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)