Donald Trump said during the second presidential debate that his bragging about kissing and touching women without their consent — caught on a hot mic in an explosive 2005 video — was “locker-room talk” and that he never actually groped anyone.
“No, I have not,” Trump told Anderson Cooper, the debate’s co-moderator.
Since then, seven women have come forward alleging they were inappropriately touched by the Republican nominee in separate incidents dating back to the early 1970s. Three other women have had their past claims resurfaced in light of Trump’s alleged transgressions.
Here are the names of each of the women and a summary of their allegations. Trump has denied all of them, claiming their stories are part of a media conspiracy spearheaded by the Hillary Clinton campaign. The real estate mogul has also suggested that some of the women aren’t attractive enough for him.
Jessica Leeds
Leeds told the New York Times that in the early 1980s she was seated next to Trump on a flight to New York City.
About 45 minutes after takeoff, Leeds said, Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her, grabbing her breasts and attempting to put his hand up her skirt.
“He was like an octopus,” Leeds said. “His hands were everywhere.”
Leeds fled to the back of the plane.
“It was an assault,” she said.
Trump’s response
Two of the Republican nominee’s top campaign surrogates — spokeswoman Katrina Pierson and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — suggested Leeds could not be telling the truth because first class seats at that time had fixed armrests.
“If she was groped on a plane, it wasn’t by Donald Trump and it certainly wasn’t in first class,” Pierson said in a widely mocked appearance on CNN.
“OK, Katrina,” CNN’s Don Lemon responded. “We’ll get our aviation expert here to talk about the airplane.”
Phil Derner Jr., an aviation enthusiast, told Yahoo News that some planes at that time had adjustable armrests, both in coach and some in first class.
Trump himself seemed to mock Leeds’ appearance.
“Believe me. She would not be my first choice. That I can tell you,” he said at a rally in Greensboro, N.C., on Oct. 14. “That would not be my first choice.”
Rachel Crooks
Crooks told the Times that in 2005 Trump kissed her on the mouth at Trump Tower in New York City without her consent.
Crooks, then a 22-year-old receptionist at a real estate investment and development company located inside Trump’s Manhattan high-rise, said she encountered Trump outside an elevator 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.
“It was so inappropriate,” Ms. Crooks recalled in an interview. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
Shaken, Ms. Crooks returned to her desk and immediately called her sister, Brianne Webb, in the small town in Ohio where they grew up, and told her what had happened.
“She was very worked up about it,” said Ms. Webb, who recalled pressing her sister for details. “Being from a town of 1,600 people, being naïve, I was like, ‘Are you sure he didn’t just miss trying to kiss you on the cheek?’ She said, ‘No, he kissed me on the mouth.’ I was like, ‘That is not normal.’”
Trump’s response
A lawyer for the Republican nominee issued a letter accusing the Times of libel and demanding a retraction from the paper. The candidate himself responded on Twitter, calling the story “phony” and a “total fabrication.”
The Times said it would not back down in the face of Trump’s legal threat.
“We stand by the story, which falls clearly into the realm of public service journalism,” a spokeswoman for the newspaper told Yahoo News.
Natasha Stoynoff
Stoynoff, a People magazine writer, says that Trump forced himself on her in 2005 at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, where she was conducting a joint interview with the real estate mogul and his wife, Melania.
“In December 2005, around the time Trump had his now infamous conversation with Billy Bush, I traveled to Mar-a-Lago to interview the couple for a first-wedding-anniversary feature story,” Stoynoff recalled in an essay for People on Oct. 12. “Our photo team shot the Trumps on the lush grounds of their Florida estate, and I interviewed them about how happy their first year of marriage had been. 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.”
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