Donald Trump addresses Miss USA contestants in a conference room in Trump Tower, during their to New York, Wednesday, May 25, 2011. (photo: Richard Drew/AP)
By Judd Legum, ThinkProgress
n Wednesday night, a flood of women came forward alleging they were sexually assaulted by Trump.Their allegations track closely with Trump’s own description of his conduct with women in a 2005 videotape that was recently released. In the tape, Trump brags that he kissed and groped women without their consent.
Trump: “Yeah that’s her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Bush: “Whatever you want.”
Trump: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump has insisted that this was just “locker room talk” and that he did not actually sexually assault women.
The allegations from multiple women suggest otherwise.
Jessica Leeds
The allegations from multiple women suggest otherwise.
Jessica Leeds
Leeds alleges that, in 1980, she was groped by Trump on an airplane. She told her story to the New York Times:
More than three decades ago, when she was a traveling business woman at a paper company, Ms. Leeds said, she sat beside Mr. Trump in the first class cabin of a flight to New York. They had never met before. About 45 minutes after takeoff, she recalled, Mr. Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her.
According to Ms. Leeds, Mr. Trump grabbed her breast and tried to put his hand up her skirt.
Rachel Crooks
Crooks alleges that, in 2005, she was assaulted by Trump in Trump Tower in New York. She also told her story to the New York Times.
Mrs. Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate and investment and development company in Trump Tower in Manhattan when she encountered Mr. Trump outside an elevator in the building one morning in 2005. Aware that her company did business with Mr. Trump, she turned and introduced herself. They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said he “kissed me directly on the mouth.”
Mindy McGillivray
McGillivary says she was groped by Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. She told her story to the Palm Beach Post.
McGillivray, 36, said she was groped by Trump at Mar-a-Lago 13 years ago. She said she never reported it to authorities. But her companion that day, photographer Ken Davidoff, vividly remembers when McGillivray pulled him aside moments after the alleged incident and told him, ‘’Donald just grabbed my ass!’’
Cassandra Searles
Searles says she was groped by Trump at the 2013 Miss
USA pageant, which Trump owned at the time. She first made her
allegations in June but it drew the attention of local media today.
[Miss Washington 2013 Cassandra] Searles added in a comment on her initial post’s thread, “He probably doesn’t want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room.”
Natasha Stoynoff
Stoynoff, a writer for People Magazine, alleges Trump accosted her at Mar-a-Lago while she was their interviewing him for a story on his first wedding anniversary.
When we took a break for the then very-pregnant Melania to go upstairs and change wardrobe for more photos, Donald wanted to show me around the mansion. There was one “tremendous” room in particular, he said, that I just had to see. 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.
Previously, Jill Harth, a pageant producer, sued Trump, alleging that he repeatedly groped her in the 1990s.
These accusations follow the release of audio on Sunday of Trump bragging to Howard Stern that he would walk backstage during the beauty pageants while the contestants were undressed. Contestants from the Miss Teen USA pageant in 1997 confirmed that he walked through the dressing area while they were changing. One of them was 15 at the time.
Another video surfaced today of a 46-year-old Trump in 1992 looking at a 10-year-old girl in Trump Tower and declaring, “I am going to be dating her in ten years.”
The Trump campaign has denied the allegations in the New York Times story. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said that “It is absurd to think that one of the most recognizable business leaders on the planet with a strong record of empowering women in his companies would do the things alleged.” Miller said the story “trivializes sexual assault.”
These accusations follow the release of audio on Sunday of Trump bragging to Howard Stern that he would walk backstage during the beauty pageants while the contestants were undressed. Contestants from the Miss Teen USA pageant in 1997 confirmed that he walked through the dressing area while they were changing. One of them was 15 at the time.
Another video surfaced today of a 46-year-old Trump in 1992 looking at a 10-year-old girl in Trump Tower and declaring, “I am going to be dating her in ten years.”
The Trump campaign has denied the allegations in the New York Times story. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said that “It is absurd to think that one of the most recognizable business leaders on the planet with a strong record of empowering women in his companies would do the things alleged.” Miller said the story “trivializes sexual assault.”
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