Donald Trump offered chance to apologise over 'Mexican rapists', instead decides to dig increasingly big hole

Donald Trump was recently invited on to CNN to discuss his comments that Mexicans immigrating to the US are drug-using rapists.

When announcing his improbably popular presidential campaign, Trump said he would build a wall between Mexico and the US, saying of people travelling to the US: "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime; they're rapists."

Trump may be doing better than expected in the polls, but the comments have already proved costly, with Univision cancelling the Miss USA pageant, which Trump co-owns along with Miss Universe.

Offered an opportunity to row back on the contentious quotes with CNN's Don Lemon, himself no stranger to rape comments controversy, and soothe Republican worries about attracting Hispanic voters, Trump instead insisted that "somebody's doing the raping".

After citing a 2014 Fusion article reporting that 80 per cent of Central American migrants passing through Mexico are raped, Lemon said: "That's about women being raped, it's not about criminals coming across the border."

To which Trump replied: "Somebody's doing the raping, Don. The thing is women being raped, well, then who's doing the raping? Who's doing the raping?"

Watch the clip below:

More: TV host offers alleged Bill Cosby victim tips on 'how not to get raped'

Quiz: Real Donald Trump policy or policy of our warped imaginations?