that senior people on the trump campaign were telling trump to drop out of the race, to resign. they are threatening to quit themselves. but now, from hope hicks, we know that the very next day, after the access hollywood tape comes out, as the campaign is spiraling, maybe to death, because of the access hollywood tape an its impact, the next day, the trump campaign goes into a totally different kind of damage control on a totally different matter entirely, because they hear that s a tape of russian hookers, lewd activities, trump in moscow? ah, number one, that means that the campaign and presumably the candidate were not, for the first time, being told about the rumored existence of the trump hooker pee tape when james comey sat the president down during the transition and very gingerly told him about it. james comey has written about that interaction with the president during the transition and he has described it as if the president appeared to be very shocked to hear about this
he was outraged to hear the rumors of this tape. remember, i m a germophobe. that s ridiculous. but now we know that trump and his campaign had heard about that supposed tape and had been trying to track it down themselves. at least since the previous october. and they had tasked michael cohen with handling that. so, it was feigned surprise from president trump to james comey when he thought he was telling trump about that tape for the first time in january during the transition. secondly, we now know that the campaign s reaction when they heart about this tape, the supposed tape, was that they should call michael cohen. he s the guy. when they got this news that there might be a russian hooker s tape from trump in moscow, right, at that moment, they re are having probably the biggest breakout of the campaign, understandably, about the access hollywood tape where the president brags about
tape. so, this is not long before the election. this is october. before the election. the access hollywood tape comes out and the campaign threatens to blow up. we know from subsequent accounts that senior people on the trump campaign were telling trump to dropout of the race and resign. they are threatening to quit themselves. now from hope hicks, the next day after the tape comes out, as the campaign is spiraling maybe to death because of the access hollywood tape and its impact, the next day, the trump campaign goes into a totally different damage control on a totally different matter entirely because they hear that there is a tape of russian hookers and lewd activities of trump in moscow. number one that, mean that is the campaign and presumably the candidate were not for the first time being told about the rumored existence of the trump hooker pee tape when james comey
if he heard of this and if harvey contacted him and if he please could be in touch with me. committee staff, and do you recall anything happening in connection with wikileaks at this team? yes. and what happened in that connection, ms. hicks? i believe the same day the access hollywood tape was released, wikileaks also released emails from john podesta s account. question, do you have any information about how those came to be released at that time? answer, no. okay, any other reason you reached mr. cohen? besides the harvey levin connection? answer, no. i know what michael said in his testimony about reaching out to him to help spin reporters. number one, i wouldn t reach out to michael for spinning reporters at that point in time, and number two, you know, there was really no spinning that tape. so, this is not long before the election. this is october. before the election. the access hollywood tape comes out and the campaign threatens to blow up. we know from subsequent accounts
see the tape or listen to the aud yoel before responding. was he upset? yes, i think everybody was in like a little bit of shock. did he ask you how did he seek your advice on how to respond? yes. there were quite a few of us and it was very much a group discussion, given that this unfolded at a debate prep session. question, do you remember who else you discussed the tape with? answer, who else was present there? yeah, at that time. sure. reince preibus, chris christie, jason miller, steve bannon, kellyanne conway and later, jared kushner. i think that s it. question, do you recall reaching out to michael cohen about the tape? answer, my recollection of reaching out to michael took place the following day and it wasn t about the tape, meaning it wasn t about the access hollywood tape. she says, quote, it was about this is going to get confusing, but the day after the access hollywood tape, there were rumors going around, i m not