Howard Stern: Donald Trump's sex assault comments were not 'locker room' talk

The radio personality says he has never been in the room with someone who has 'advocated' the invasion of a women’s personal space in such a way

The provocative, controversial radio personality says he has never in all his years heard a man say he would grab a woman by the p***y (Getty Images)

The two words “locker-room” and “talk” have dominated political discourse in the past two weeks and arguably come to symbolise Donald Trump’s fall from grace.

Mr Trump apologised for his "p***y-grabbing" comments in an 90 second long apology released after the leaked tapes first emerged but continued to repeatedly describe them as "locker room talk" when probed during the second presidential debate.

Since the Republican candidate dismissed and justified his lewd comments as “locker room” banter, an onslaught of Republican politicians, celebrities, athletes and even his own daughter Ivanka Trump have come forth to condemn his comparison.

America’s most notorious shock jock, Howard Stern, who has been both partial and privy to his share of “locker room” talk has now argued that Trump’s remarks are in no way an example of “locker room” talk. The provocative, controversial radio personality said he had never in all his years heard a man say he would "grab a woman by the p***y”.

Stern said he had never heard a man “advocate” the invasion of a women’s personal space in such a way.

“All the times I’ve been around guys - believe me, when I’m around guys, 85 percent of the time you’re talking about p***y - but I’ve never been in the room where someone says ‘grab them by the p***y,'” Stern said on his radio show on Monday.

“No one has sort of advocated that step where you go, ‘Hey, I’m going to invade someone’s space.’”

Stern admitted that his show could in some ways be perceived as an attempt to recreate locker room banter in a public domain.

Over the years, Mr Trump frequently appeared as a guest on the Howard Stern Show, appearing on the programme more than two dozen times from the late 90s until the 2000s. His appearances have frequently come back to bite him throughout his election campaign. Most recently, his lewd and derogatory comments about Lindsay Lohan, including speculating about what sex with her would be like, have resurfaced.

Topics of women he had sex with and wanted to have sex with frequently came up on the show, with Mr Trump relishing in rating women’s appearances. “A person who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10,” Mr Trump once told Stern.

Despite the fact a number of publications have obtained access to the recordings Stern insisted it would be a “betrayal” to unearth and play all his past shows with Mr Trump.

“Why don't I play all the tapes?” Stern said. “I have to tell you why: I feel Donald Trump did the show in an effort to be entertaining and have fun with us, and I feel like it would be a betrayal to any of our guests if I sat there and played them now where people are attacking him.”

Stern said the shows were not made in an attempt to “f*ck someone over” and were motivated by the desire to entertain listeners.

“We were having a good time. I fully knew what I was doing when I interviewed Trump,“ he said. ”I knew I had a guy who loved to talk about sex. ... I had a guy who loved to evaluate women on a scale of one to 10. These are avenues I went down because I knew it would entertain the audience.”