Donald Trump: Arianne Zucker talks leaked tape on Today show

Arianne Zucker is speaking out on the 2005 video of Donald Trump making graphic comments about women.

“They are offensive comments for women, period,” says the Days of Our Lives star in an interview with TODAY Thursday.

In the video, Trump is talking with with then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush while on the way to meet Zucker to film a cameo on the NBC soap opera.”I’ve got to use some tic-tacs just in case I start kissing her,” says the Republican presidential nominee, referring to Zucker. “You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”

Speaking to the NBC morning show, Zucker says she wasn’t surprised by the vulgar comments made in the video. “Not with that type of personality, I wasn’t shocked, which is probably why it doesn’t mean a lot to me,” she says, adding that Trump’s subsquent apology was “interesting.”

“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago,” said Trump in a statement obtained by EW. “Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”

While many have criticized Bush for his behavior in the video, Zucker didn’t have much to say on that matter. “Who knows how he was feeling when he walked off the bus or what he needed to do in the relationship, because when he came off the bus along with Mr Trump, I had no feeling but professional,” says Zucker.

Bush released an apology and was suspended from hosting TODAY, which he joined in August. “Obviously I’m embarrassed and ashamed. It’s no excuse, but this happened 11 years ago – I was younger, less mature, and acted foolishly in playing along. I’m very sorry,” Bush, 44, said.

Zucker said she hopes to use this moment as an opportunity to teach her daughter how to “hold her head high” if she ever finds herself in a similar situation and to teach boys and men how not to talk about women. “I’m ready to use it in a proper way. I’m ready to use it for positivity,” she explained. “I’m ready to use it for women to step forward and do good things in my life and for other people.”

Watch the entire interview on TODAY‘s website.