A former contestant on “The Apprentice†said the recently released recording of Donald Trump’s lewd comments about women seems to confirm all of the rumours she heard on set.
Tara Dowdell, who competed in season three of the reality show, has become of a vocal critic of the Republican candidate and has previously called him out for his racist and sexist comments. In a 2005 recording released last week, Trump talked about aggressively groping women.
“This tape really just crystallizes everything that I had heard,†Dowdell told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel Wednesday.
Dowdell said Trump was “very polite†to her personally but she heard rumours about inappropriate and vulgar comments he made to other female contestants.
“I think one thing that we’ve learned from Donald Trump over the course of this campaign is where there is smoke there is a gigantic forest fire.â€
Dowdell said the vulgar Trump remarks show a different side of him than the one she knew. Dowdell first encountered Trump while she was working as director of appointments for the governor of New Jersey. She believes Trump may have treated her differently because she came from his business realm.
Dowdell has lent her voice to the growing calls for outtakes from all 11 seasons of “The Apprentice†to be released. Attorney Gloria Allred and women's rights activists protested outside the office of MGM Television, the show’s distributor, on Tuesday. Allred also penned an open letter to the show’s executive producer Mark Burnett, but both he and MGM say they cannot legally release the footage.
Dowdell said the original “Apprentice†tapes must be released so voters can make an informed decision. She said the release is a matter of maintaining a transparent and democratic process.
“It’s not like he’s on ‘The Apprentice’ anymore. He’s running for the highest office in the United States of America. He’s running to run a country,†she said.
“I’m embarrassed as a citizen of the United States of America that he is one of the nominees for president of our country,†she said.