Female Trump supporters use Beyoncé, 50 Shades of Grey to shrug off Trump's vulgar comments

Trump supporters are getting creative in defending his lewd comments

(Image credit: CNN/YouTube)

last updated 11 October 2016

On Sunday morning, the only top Donald Trump ally who would go on the political talk shows was Rudy Giuliani. After Sunday night's debate, female Trump advisers and staffers started appearing on cable news to defend Trump, especially over vulgar comments about making unwanted sexual moves on women, and that continued Monday. On Monday evening, Trump advocates Scottie Nell Hughes and Betsy McCaughey creatively argued that Trump's NSFW language is just part of broader pop culture and that Hillary Clinton is a hypocrite.

"Where have we made it okay to talk like that?" CNN's Anderson Cooper asked Hughes, referring to Trump's lewd language about women. "Eighty million copies of 50 Shades of Grey was sold," she said, also mentioning the male-stripper movie Magic Mike. When Cooper asked, Hughes said that the sex in 50 Shades of Grey was not consensual "all the time," and also name-dropped the Vampire Trilogy. "If you read anything from Sports Illustrated to Playboy, sex, unfortunately sells," she said, arguing that the real story is that Hillary Clinton has "torn down" the four women Trump brought to Sunday's debate.

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McCaughey, also on CNN, gleefully quoted Beyoncé to try to make her point. "I abhor lewd and bawdy language, I don't listen to rap music," she told Don Lemon, explaining that she mentioned rap "because it's full of the F word, the P word, the B word, the A word." When Lemon pointed out that rappers "aren't running for president," McCaughey responded: "Hillary Clinton says she finds the language on that bus horrific, but in fact she likes language like this," reading Beyoncé lyrics. When Lemon asked if Clinton said that, she said no, but Beyoncé is Clinton's "favorite performer, whom she says she idolizes and would like to imitate." Lemon laughed. "There is a lot of hypocrisy in Hillary Clinton expressing such horror at the language on that bus," McCaughey said. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.