Additional women come forward saying Trump assaulted them

Mark Sumner

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday October 12, 2016 · 4:44 PM PDT

2016/10/12 · 16:44

AYR, SCOTLAND - JUNE 24: Presumptive Republican nominee for US president Donald Trump arrives to his Trump Turnberry Resort on June 24, 2016 in Ayr, Scotland. Mr Trump arrived to officially open his golf resort which has undergone an eight month refurbishment as part of an investment thought to be worth in the region of two hundred million pounds. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

TAGS

Edit Tags

Tag History

Done Editing Tags

Donald Trump bragged that owning a beauty pageant gave him the power to drop by backstage on naked contestants. And it turns out that wasn't just words. It’s now clear that statements on how his fame entitled Trump to kiss, grab, and grope any woman he desired was also a lot more than words.

Two women have come forward to say that Donald Trump assaulted them. One of these encounters was almost three decades ago, when a woman who had never met Donald Trump was unfortunate enough to have the seat next to him on a flight.

According to Ms. Leeds, Mr. Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt.

“He was like an octopus,” she said. “His hands were everywhere.”

She fled to the back of the plane. “It was an assault,” she said.

The second reported encounter was in 2005, the same year that Donald Trump told Billy Bush how when he was near a beautiful women “I just start kissing them.”

Ms. Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate 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.”

It didn’t feel like an accident, she said. It felt like a violation.

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump has denied both women’s accounts. It would also not be surprising if they were soon joined by many more.

Their accounts echo those of other women who have previously come forward, like Temple Taggart, a former Miss Utah, who said that Mr. Trump kissed her on the mouth more than once when she was a 21-year-old pageant contestant.

Confronted with the stories by New York Times reporter Megan Twohey, Trump exploded.

“None of this ever took place,” said Mr. Trump, who began shouting at The Times reporter who was questioning him. He said that The Times was making up the allegations to hurt him and that he would sue the news organization if it reported them.

And as usual, he had fine words for a member of the press.

“You are a disgusting human being,” he told the reporter as she questioned him about the women’s claims.

Jessica Leeds, the women who was assaulted on the plane, is now 74. She told her story to several friends over the years, well before Trump entered politics. But right after the encounter, Leeds didn’t feel that she could come forward because of the attitude at the time.

“We accepted it for years,” she said of the conduct. “We were taught it was our fault.”

Rachel Crooks, who Trump grabbed and kissed by the elevator, immediately called her sister and told her about the assault.

Shorty after the story became public, the Trump campaign issued a statement. One which, ironically, accused the Times of doing exactly what both and his surrogates have done—belittle the idea of sexual assault.

Additional women come forward saying Trump assaulted them

Comments are closed on this story.