Temple Taggart McDowell competed in the 1997 Miss USA pageant owned by Donald Trump. She says her father was in the audience during rehearsals and introduced her to Donald Trump, who immediately creeped her out with an unwanted kiss.
After the initial encounter, Trump offered to help her career and a second creepy encounter occurred. From NBC News:
Later, McDowell said, Trump offered to help her get contracts with elite modeling agencies, and during a visit to Trump Tower in Manhattan at Trump's invitation, he again embraced and kissed her on the lips, this time in front of two pageant chaperones and a receptionist.
The New York encounter made one of the chaperones so "uncomfortable" that she advised McDowell not to go into any rooms with Trump alone, McDowell said. The other chaperone accompanied her into Trump's office, she said.
Hats off to her chaperone for not putting her in a room alone with Donald Trump. Temple Taggart McDowell says the encounter shook her:
"I remember being shocked" by the encounter at the Miss USA pageant, McDowell said, adding: "I would have just thought to shake somebody's hand, and that was his first response with me."
"I remember feeling kind of embarrassed, like wanting to turn and bite my mouth, like, 'What just happened?'" she said.
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Trump campaign surrogates and primary foes have complained this week that this was an “October surprise” and the media has been waiting to pounce, but these stories have been out there for months. McDowell’s allegations, along with stories from numerous other women, were first publicly outlined on May 14, 2016 in the New York Times article “Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private.”
Watch Temple Taggart McDowell describe the inappropriate encounters in her own words in an NBC News interview.