GROPED BY ‘THE OCTOPUS’
Trump faces deluge of sex assault claims from beauty queen, journalist and even a plane passenger
DONALD Trump was yesterday accused of groping a fellow plane passenger ‘like an octopus’ as his beleaguered presidential campaign faced a deluge of sex assault claims.
Just days after he insisted he had never touched or kissed any woman without her consent, he faced a string of accusers who said they felt compelled to come forward to contradict him.
While the allegations varied in severity, each of the five women claimed Trump had assaulted them without warning or any compunction.
Trump, 70, faced further embarrassment when a video surfaced in which he made an unsettling remark to a ten-year-old girl. In the footage, shot for a Christmas episode of TV show Entertainment Tonight in 1992, Trump – then 46 – accosted a group of young girls visiting his Trump Tower building in Manhattan.
asking a ten-year- old if she was going up an escalator, he is heard remarking: ‘I am going to be dating her in ten years. Can you believe it?’
He made a similar remark in 2006 when he said that if Ivanka Trump
‘Disgusting human being’
hadn’t been his daughter, he might have been dating her.
Trump has vehemently denied all the new allegations and has threatened to sue the new York Times for defamation after it published the claims of two of the women.
However, the sheer number and variety of his accusers – who include a businesswoman, a journalist, a beauty queen and a receptionist – is potentially deeply damaging for the Republican candidate as he tries to end the feverish debate over his behaviour towards women.
last Friday, senior Republicans and voters alike reacted with disgust after an 11- year- old videotape emerged in which he boasted of being able to kiss and grope women because of his fame. In a TV debate against Hillary Clinton on Sunday night, Trump insisted it had merely been ‘locker room talk’ and he had never actually assaulted any woman.
The women who have come forward with the latest allegations said they had felt forced to speak out because of the property tycoon’s denials that he ever molested women. none has made a complaint to police.
The uproar has overshadowed an embarrassing release of emails from Clinton aides which show her cosy links with Wall Street and liberal US journalists. Clinton’s campaign said the new allegations against Trump suggested he lied to voters during Sunday’s second presidential debate.
‘This disturbing story sadly fits everything we know about the way Donald Trump has treated women,’ said Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri.
Trump, slipping in the polls, has now claimed the election could be ‘stolen’ from him. He has cited election day vote rigging and media bias in debates as possible reasons why the White House race may go against him.
The tycoon was caught claiming in the 2005 videotape that his fame as host of reality TV show The apprentice allowed him to treat women however he wanted. ‘When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want… grab them by the p****.’
The Republican did nothing to help himself with his reaction to a woman reporter with the new York Times who asked for a reponse to allegations of assault by Jessica leeds and Rachel Crooks. Megan Twohey said he got agitated and called her a ‘disgusting human being’.
Michelle obama also waded into the row yesterday calling Trump’s videotaped comments ‘disgraceful’.
‘This wasn’t locker room banter,’ the First lady told a Clinton rally. ‘ This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior.’
Trump last night launched a defiant assault on the american media, insisting the latest incidents never happened. ‘These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. and the Clintons know it,’ he told a rally in West Palm Beach. ‘These attacks are orchestrated by the Clintons and their media allies.’