WASHINGTON – Adult film star Stormy Daniels called having sex with Donald Trump a “regrettable” decision but could not say why she decided to sleep with him in the first place.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, explained why she does not want to be connected to the #MeToo movement in any way.
“The word ‘feminist’ has sort of taken on this life of its own and I just felt like it was putting me in a box and I don’t like that, sort of how everybody kept trying to shove the #MeToo movement onto me and that was just infuriating because, despite all the issues I have with Donald Trump, I was not assaulted or abused. I was never in fear,” Daniels said on Monday evening during a discussion with Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn about her new book, Full Disclosure.
“I made that decision. Although a very, very regrettable one, it was still my choice and I just didn’t want to have that label where it seems like I’m doing this because ‘f*** men’ and that’s not me at all,” she added. “But, yes, I do feel very supported.”
Earlier in the discussion, Daniels was asked why she ended up having sex with Trump, given her criticism of him.
“I have no idea, and I’ve been asked this question so many times. And I should probably just make up a cool answer, but I’ve got nothing,” she said. “I was just so naive.”
Daniels described the reason she decided to come forward and tell her story publicly.
“The next thing I know, Michael Cohen is shopping a book saying in the thing that he was trying to pitch, ‘Oh, and I’ll tell you about the rumor where I paid her $130,000.’ I’m like, great, so now not only do I look like a whore, I look like a cheap whore. Like, no,” she said. “And I just wanted to be able to defend myself because they broke the agreement five times before I said anything.”
Daniels recently released a critical statement about her attorney, Michael Avenatti, accusing him of pursuing the defamation case against Trump without her approval and not informing her about a GoFundMe page he set up for her expenses. Daniels revealed that she was considering dropping him as her lawyer.
“I knew about the first [fund], obviously, and I just started having people ask me like where the money went, was it going to be used to pay Trump? Was there money left over? And I feel like people who gave me money deserve to know where it went. It was so kind and generous for so many people to do this for me, and I’m not a thief,” Daniels said at the book discussion.
“I just wanted answers for these people, so I started asking for accounting and I couldn’t get it. He was supposed to, you know – the security is paid out of that and it just became difficult to get the monies. And I asked over and over and I find out on Twitter there’s now a second GoFundMe, and I hate finding shit out on Twitter. So, I called him out on it,” she added.
When asked if she has made up with Avenatti now, Daniels replied, “Well, he sent me the accounting and it looks good, but sometimes people just need a swift kick in the ass.”
Quinn told Daniels her final question was about Trump and ethics, values and morals.
“How do you even put those in the same sentence?” Daniels responded.
Quinn, who said she’s watched Daniels’ porn and “it’s really good – she knows what she’s doing,” praised the adult film star for her business ethics.
“You’re ethical in everything that you do and you tell the truth and from a business standpoint you’re ethical, and you compare you to the people surrounding Donald Trump like, let’s say, Paul Manafort or Michael Cohen or some of the others,” Quinn continued, adding that Daniels “might be the only person Trump is afraid of” right now.
“There’s no name he can call you. There’s nothing he can say to hurt you and you can hurt him, so you’ve got this enormous power over him,” Quinn said. “You have turned ethics and values and morals around, upside down, in this country. So you’re looking at the group of people in the administration where those words don’t have any meaning and you – Stormy Daniels, the porn star – are the one who is the ethical person who has the values.”
“How f***ked up is that, yo?” Daniels replied, adding that she’s “very conflicted” about the power she has at the moment.
Daniels said no one believed her story about Trump initially because she’s a woman working in the porn industry.
“I really just did this to save my own ass because someone called me a liar – and I’m a lot of things, a lot of things, but I am not a liar – and, really, I just did it because I was pissed off and wanted to set the record straight. And they were getting away with breaking this contract and doing whatever they wanted,” Daniels said.
“It just wasn’t fair and no one believed me – one, because I have a vagina and, two, because it’s a friendly vagina and everyone’s seen it, so that means that I obviously must be a liar because I work in porn. And that was just so frustrating, and I see that happen over and over again to these people I work with,” she added.
Daniels continued, “Now this has become so much bigger and unexpected that people are calling me crazy things like a hero and I’m, like, I don’t remember entering any burning buildings. But OK, and it’s just really hard to carry all of that and feel responsible for it, but I guess I’m really not responsible for anybody but myself. I don’t know. I just do what I do, I guess.”
When asked how she’s handling Trump’s criticism after a federal judge dismissed Daniels’ defamation case, she replied, “I have gray hair now it’s very troubling.”
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