Two more women have accused US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of groping as the business mogul is already faced with mounting criticism over sexual assault allegations.
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump’s reality show "The Apprentice," said Friday that he sexually abused her when she met him in 2007 at a Beverly Hills hotel to discuss a possible job.
Trump "asked me to sit next to him. I complied. He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively,” Zervos said at a news conference in Los Angeles.
"He put me in an embrace and I tried to push him away. I pushed his chest to put space between us and I said 'come on man, get real,” she added.
Also, a former aspiring model, Kristin Anderson, told The Washington Post Friday that she was groped by Trump in a nightclub in the early 1990s.
“He was so distinctive looking — with the hair and the eyebrows," Anderson told The Post. "I mean, nobody else has those eyebrows.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied Anderson’s allegation, calling it a “total fabrication.”
“Why is this just coming out now? She (Anderson) described the allegation as being 'inconsequential at the time,' but why then wasn’t it consequential when Mr. Trump announced for President, or when he won the primary, or when he headlined the convention – why is it just now, three weeks before election day, consequential? The answer is that this is clearly a political attack designed to tear down Mr. Trump," Hicks said.
The new allegations came after some other women claimed on Wednesday that they had been sexually abused by the billionaire.
One woman told The New York Times she was seated next to Trump during a flight to New York some three decades ago, and he started groping her suddenly.
Another woman told the Times that he kissed her without her permission. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that,” she said.
Trump rejected women’s claims as “preposterous,” saying the media is an entrenched establishment force “in bed” with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and determined to get her elected the president of the United States.
Last Friday, a 2005 tape was released in which Trump is heard making vulgar comments about women and having a conversation about trying to have sex with a married woman.
Zervos said she felt compelled to come forward after Trump denied sexually assaulting any women during the second presidential debate."He put me in an embrace and I tried to push him away. I pushed his chest to put space between us and I sad come on man, 'get real'. He repeated my words back to me, 'get real', as he began thrusting his genitals," she claimed.
Summer Zervos was on Trump's reality television show in 2005, and said she met with him two years later to discuss possible employment at his business.
Zervos became emotional yesterday as she read a statement claiming that, during a subsequent meeting, Trump greeted her by "kissing me open mouthed as he was pulling me toward him".
She continued: "He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast".
Zervos said she felt compelled to come forward after Trump denied sexually assaulting any women during the second presidential debate."He put me in an embrace and I tried to push him away. I pushed his chest to put space between us and I sad come on man, 'get real'. He repeated my words back to me, 'get real', as he began thrusting his genitals," she claimed.
"Mr Trump, when I met you I was so impressed with your talents that I wanted to be like you. I wanted a job within your organisation. Instead you treated me as though I was an object to be hit upon," she said in the statement.
A second woman claimed yesterday that Donald Trump reached up her skirt at a New York nightclub in the early 1990s.
Kristen Anderson claims she was seated on a velvet couch at the China Club when a man suddenly slipped his hand into her skirt, touching her upper thigh and her vagina.
She says she slapped the hand away and stood up, only to recognise the man as Donald Trump.
"It wasn't a sexual come-on. I don't know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it, and nothing would happen," she alleged in the Washington Post. "There was zero conversation. We didn't even really look at each other. It was very random, very nonchalant on his part."
The accusation aligns with the behaviour Mr Trump described in a 2005 recording, when he said he would kiss women without permission and "grab them by the p----" because, "when you're a start they let you do it".
Anderson says she has discussed the story with friends for many years, including immediately after the incident, but only came forward after the 2005 tape emerged and several other women accused Trump of touching them inappropriately.
"It's a sexual assault issue, and it's something that I've kept quiet on my own, and I've always kept quiet," she said. "And why should I keep quiet? Actually, all of the women should speak up, and if you're touched inappropriately, tell somebody and speak up about it. Actually go to the authorities and press some charges. It's not okay."
Anderson accused Trump and other men like him of treating women "like you're some kind of stuffed animal on the couch", and believing that sort of behaviour was inconsequential.
"It's really not nothing, and it sends an awful message to women that they're nothing," she said.
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump, denied Anderson's allegations.
"Mr. Trump strongly denies this phony allegation by someone looking to get some free publicity. It is totally ridiculous," she told the Washington Post.
The candidate himself addressed the accusations yesterday (FRI) during a rally in Florida, calling the claims "disgusting".
"They have no witnesses. There was nobody around. Maybe they are doing it for fame," he said.
Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, reiterated that message yesterday: "Stay tuned. I know there's more information that's going to be coming out that will back his claim that this is all categorically false," he told CBS.
Meanwhile Ben Carson, Trump's primary election rival and now one of his most high-profile supporters, said it was irrelevant whether the accusers were telling the truth.
"It doesn't matter whether they're lying or not," he told MSNBC, arguing that the allegations were a distraction from more serious issues like the economy.
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