Donald Trump admits more 'inappropriate tapes' might emerge

Amid a frenzy of speculation that The Apprentice TV programme is sitting on other bombshell recordings of the Republican presidential candidate, even Donald Trump has conceded that more "inappropriate tapes" might emerge.

Trump's former Republican backers have been stampeding away from his campaign in the wake of the release last week of a recording from NBC's Access Hollywood of him bragging in 2005 about kissing women and grabbing their genitals, something he said he could "get away with" because he was a reality star on The Apprentice.

Just days ago former Apprentice producer Bill Pruitt Tweeted that as far as Trump tapes are concerned, there are "far worse", adding the hashtag #justthebeginning.

Another producer, who has not worked on the show, said she heard that Trump used racial slurs during filming for The Apprentice.

But producer Chris Nee said that Apprentice staffers must sign a contract making them liable for a $5m (£4m) fine if they leak any tape of the programme, which would make the release of any recordings very expensive.

There were reports that current Apprentice producer Mark Burnett, who is a friend of Trump's, was warning workers not to leak any recordings of the candidate.

As pressure on Burnett – and anticipation – has mounted, his public relations team issued a statement to Variety Monday (10 October) stating that "MGM owns Mark Burnett's production company, and The Apprentice is one of its properties. Despite reports to the contrary, Mark Burnett does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from The Apprentice" due to "contractual and legal obligations."

The statement also said reports that Burnett "threatened anyone with litigation if they were to leak such material are completely and unequivocally false."

Trump often talked crudely about women on the set of The Apprentice, rating them by breast size, and asking male contestants in embarrassing encounters if they would like to have sex with particular female contestants, several staff members and contestants told Associated Press (AP).

Trump said recently that his lewd comments about women have often been for "entertainment" purposes.

Trump brought up the possibility of more inappropriate tapes at a Pennsylvania campaign rally and insisted he was not cowed by them, even though the Access Hollywood tape has become the biggest crisis of his campaign.

"If they want to release more tapes saying inappropriate things, we'll continue to talk about Bill and Hillary Clinton doing inappropriate things. There are so many of them," he said according to a Sky News report.

Meanwhile, US women have launched an anti-Trump movement on Twitter featuring the face of an angry kitten called Pussy Grabs Back.

Donald Trump has "activated the powers of women + cats + internet. That's what you call a fatal mistake," crows one tweeter.

T-shirts designed by the group following the release of the Trump tape have already sold out.

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