Donald Trump’s locker-room walk

After a recently released video revealed Donald Trump boasting about groping women and making unwanted sexual advances, the Republican presidential nominee described his remarks as “locker-room talk,” and said he hadn’t acted on them.

But in a handful of news reports this week, several women claimed Trump had groped them in a way he described on the tapes. Trump vehemently denied the accusations.

While Trump denies acting on locker-room talk, he doesn’t deny a certain kind of locker-room walk.

In a 2005 recording of Trump speaking with radio host Howard Stern, the business mogul boasted about using his power as the owner of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants to walk through the changing room while women were undressed.

Describing the voyeurism as “the funniest,” Trump said he went backstage while the contestants were getting dressed with no men around: “I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it. … You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. … And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.”

It’s the kind of behavior many evangelicals have said men shouldn’t get away with, and they’ve supported laws aimed at keeping men out of women’s restrooms. But some of those same evangelicals say they still support Trump, despite his casual admission that he’s used his power in a way they’ve previously called dangerous.

Consider Sen. Ted Cruz’s vigorous defense of North Carolina’s HB2 law. The legislation allows private businesses to decide whether to allow customers to use the restroom of their perceived gender identity, but it mandates people in government buildings use the restroom corresponding to their biological sex.

During his primary run this spring, the U.S. senator from Texas pummeled Trump for originally opposing the bill. In a Cruz campaign commercial, a voiceover asked: “Should a grown man pretending to be a woman be allowed to use women’s restrooms? The same restroom used by your daughter? Your wife? Donald Trump thinks so.”

Trump later said states should decide the issue, but he didn’t mention his own practice of walking into women’s dressing rooms. If conservatives opposed transgender men going into women’s changing rooms, it seems likely they would oppose any man from doing the same.

Indeed, some conservatives have warned such dynamics encourage predators. American Family Association (AFA) president Tim Wildmon called North Carolina’s bill a “simple, common-sense law,” and the AFA launched a boycott of Target after the retail chain announced it would allow customers to use the restroom of their choice.

A statement on the Christian ministry’s website said: “Target’s policy is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims. And with Target publicly boasting that men can enter women’s bathrooms, where do you think predators are going to go?”

Cruz and Wildmon have both expressed support for sticking with Trump this week, largely because of the serious threats of a Hillary Clinton presidency. We’ve asked the men to comment on whether they are concerned about Trump’s recently revealed locker-room behavior in light of their support for bathroom bills.

Wildmon responded in an email: “Donald Trump has lived much of his life as a playboy. I don't know what all he has done. If he went backstage at a beauty pageant a few years ago it wouldn't surprise me. It's basically the same thing as men going into women's bathrooms and changing areas as Target allows. It's a violation of privacy.”

We’ll update this article with any comments from Cruz.

Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins also said this week he would continue his support for Trump, saying evangelicals “are left with a choice of voting for the one who will do the least damage to our freedoms.”

In an FRC blog post earlier this year, Perkins said when leftist policies aren’t checked by common sense, “The privacy of women and children must be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. This reckless abandon of common sense threatens the safety and freedoms of Americans from Seattle to Houston.”

Perkins wasn’t immediately available for comment on Wednesday afternoon, but we’ll update the story with any comments from him about privacy and Trump’s own practices.

James Dobson also said he still supports Trump earlier this week. A spokesman said Dobson wasn’t available for comment for this article. In a statement of support for North Carolina’s restroom law earlier this year, the former head of Focus on the Family asked, “Who would have believed a day would come during my lifetime when boys could meander into the private sanctuary of girls’ toilets, or that it would someday be a civil right for men to use women’s locker rooms and showers without permission or apology?”

The Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson—who said Trump had been trying to sound “macho” with the comments on the recently released video—has defended HB2 as well. A spokesman for Robertson said he would forward a request for comment, but noted Robertson usually prefers to talk about issues on his own program rather than in interviews.

In a statement on his program earlier this year, Robertson said, “We don’t want men going into women’s bathrooms … we don’t want voyeurs having free access to the women’s locker rooms … when they’re changing their clothes.”

It’s worth noting that Trump’s free access to the women’s changing room at beauty pageants wasn’t about the transgender issue surrounding restroom laws. Trump’s behavior was a profession of using his power to engage in direct voyeurism—a disturbing reality in any context.

This article has been updated to include comments from Tim Wildmon.