A series of women have come forward.
After the footage of Donald Trump making sexually aggressive comments about grabbing women’s genitals with impunity was made public, a number of women have come forward with claims that they were demeaned and touched inappropriately by the Republican candidate.
The most recent allegations include:
- Two Miss USA contestants who claimed Trump deliberately walked in on them when they were naked in a dressing room.
- A New York Times article with two women who allege Trump groped and kissed them without consent.
- A People magazine reporter who says Trump forced himself on her shortly before she was due to interview him and his wife in 2005.
- An incident in which Trump appears to sexualize a young girl.
- A claim by a woman that she was groped at a Trump event at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida.
Regarding the New York Time article, the two women who claim that they were subjected to sexually aggressive behaviour from Trump are Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks. Leeds says that the incident happened on a plane three decades ago as Trump lifted the armrest between them and began to touch her. According to Leeds, then 38, he grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt.
Crooks, who was 22 at the time, says that Trump instantly kissed her when they were first introduced. He “kissed me directly on the mouth,” she said. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
The Trump campaign have strongly denied the New York Times story, calling it a gross political attack.
“This entire article is fiction, and for the New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr Trump on a topic like this is dangerous,” senior communications advisor Jason Miller said.
They’ve also demanded a retraction, stating that “Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se. It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump’s candidacy,” wrote Marc Kasowitz.
In a damning night for the Republican candidate, People magazine published a similar story from their staff writer, Natasha Stoynoff, as she went to Mar-a-Lago to interview Donald and Melania Trump.
“We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat” she says.
In the same interview, Stoynoff writes that Trump (then married to his wife Melania) told her “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?”, in the same confident tone he uses when he says he’s going to make America great again. “Have you ever been to Peter Luger’s for steaks? I’ll take you. We’re going to have an affair, I’m telling you.”
The Palm Beach Post published a very similar story about Mindy McGillivray. She also said that Trump groped her in a similar fashion, 13 years ago at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The Guardian report that Trump deliberately walked in on two Miss USA 2001 contestants whilst they were changing, whilst CBS News discovered some Entertainment Tonight footage from 1992, where Trump looked at a group of young girls and said he would be dating one of them in ten years.
“I am going to be dating her in 10 years, can you believe it?” he remarked.
