Three women have come forward to accuse President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct in what is now the latest chapter in the #MeToo saga that has swept through America in recent times.
Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey and Rachel Crooks, who came on air together on the “Megyn Kelly Today” show on Monday, described several separate interactions with Trump in the last few years, some of the accusations even date back decades, Lisa Boyne, a witness who came forward last year, joined the others via phone for a news conference hours later.
Holvey said when she competed in Trump’s Miss USA pageant in 2006, Trump came backstage unexpectedly when she and other contestants were wearing nothing but robes and he personally inspected the contestants. “I just felt so gross,” she said. “Just looking me over like I was a piece of meat.”
Crooks said Trump forcibly kissed her multiple times during an interaction near an elevator bank in Trump Tower in 2005 while working for a third-party company. “He held onto my hand, and he kept kissing me,” she said. Afterward, she ran into her boss’ office and said she called her sister.
Leeds alleged that more than three decades ago during a flight Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt. “I do remember, at one point out of my side eye thinking that guy sitting across the aisle, why doesn’t he come to my defence? Where’s the stewardess?” she said. “But then, when [Trump’s] hand started going up my skirt — I’m not a small person — I managed to wiggle out and stand up, grab my purse and I went to the back of the airplane.”
This is in the midst of a storm that started with Harvey Weinstein and has so far led to at least 29 men being toppled from their respective places in entertainment, business and news media
At a separate press conference Monday, the four women appealed with Congress that they should investigate these allegations against the president, and were not confident that even as other powerful men are being held accountable, Trump hasn’t yet.
So far the President has been accused by 16 women of sexual misconduct, allegations that he has forcefully denied. In a statement to NBC News Monday, the White House called the claims “false” and that “the American people voiced their judgment by delivering a decisive victory” to Trump last year.