(WFLA) – In a long story about President Trump’s continued support for Alabama Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore, the New York Times reports the president has begun saying the Access Hollywood tape, in which he’s heard boasting about sexual assault, may be fake.

“He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently,” the Times reports. They say he privately told two White House members he doubts the tape’s authenticity.

“He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous Access Hollywood tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after,” according to the Times.

The tape, which surfaced weeks before the November 2016 famously featured Trump bragging to then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about grabbing women by their genitalia without consequences. Trump confirmed the tape’s authenticity in fall of 2016, but more recently, on at least two occasions, the Times reports he told two people within his administration he doesn’t think the tape is real or that the voice on the tape belongs to him.

Mr. Trump has been particularly open to the idea, pushed by Mr. Moore’s defenders, that the candidate is being wrongly accused, even as Mr. McConnell and a parade of other Republicans have said they believe the accusers. When a group of senators gathered with the president in the White House last week to discuss the tax overhaul, it took little to get Mr. Trump onto the topic of Mr. Moore – and he immediately offered up the same it-was-40-years-ago defense, according to officials at the meeting.”

Both Trump and Moore face multiple, unrelated sexual assault allegations, which they both have denied. Several women have come forward claiming Moore had inappropriate sexual relationships with them while they were minors. During the presidential campaign last year, 16 women accused Trump of sexual misconduct with allegations that range from sexual harassment to sexual assault, including unwanted kissing and groping.STORIES OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON: