Rabat – Before United States President Donald Trump took office in January 2016, there were more than a 16 accusations of sexual misconduct that can be traced back to the 1970s. Yesterday, December 11, Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey, and Rachel Cooks appeared on Megyn Kelly Today and broke their silence.
Holvey, a former Miss America pageant contestant representing Miss North Carolina, tells her experience meeting Trump, the former owner of the Miss America Pageant. She discusses being invited during the competition to what she thought was a meet-and-greet with Trump, as he had all the contestants line up. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
“[He was] looking over me like I was just a piece of meat. I was not a human being. I didn’t have a brain, I didn’t have a personality,” Holvey said.
She had assumed that that would be her first and last interaction with the current president. Unfortunately, on finals night, according to Holvey, she was in hair and makeup backstage, and before getting dressed, all the girls were in their Miss USA robes waiting to for wardrobes.
“He came in like he owns the place and like he owns you. And he was just looking at us, eyeing us up and down,” stated Holvey.
In 2005, President Trump described how he used to “inspect” the pageants in an interview on the Howard Stern Show. Before the show “and everyone’s getting dressed an everything else…I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good,” Trump said. “You know they’re standing there with no clothes….and you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.”
“It wasn’t what I had signed up for. I wanted to be a good role model and do charity,” commented Holvey after hearing the clip.
Describing a very similar situation, Crooks describes how at 22, working at the Trump Tower, she saw Trump regularly. One day, she decided to go and introduce herself, greeting him with the normal two kisses on the cheek.
“He kept kissing me…I don’t remember how many times and then he kissed me on the lips,” Crooks states.
“You feel like you have to say yes to guys… I wish I had been stronger then,” she said, talking about how Trump later asked for her number, which she said she felt forced to give out.
In midst of the interview, the White House reached out with a statement. “These false claims, totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts, were addressed in length during their judgement by delivering a decisive victory.” They state that the “timing and absurdity” of these claims “confirms the political motives behind them.”
Lastly, but not the last of the Trump sexual misconduct accusations, Jessica Leeds tells her story. She had been upgraded to first class on a flight, and the man sitting next to her was Donald Trump. However, she says had not known the Trump name because she was living in Connecticut.
“They served the meal and after it was cleared, all of a sudden all over me. Kissing and groping and groping and kissing and believe me, my memory of it was nothing was said,” Leeds states.
“…But when his hands started going up my skirt, I’m not a small person, I managed to wiggle out, stand up and grab my purse and I went to the back of the airplane.” She said.
She said she didn’t say anything to anyone, to her boss, or in the airplane.
Three years later, Leeds gets a job with the Humane Society in New York City. They were throwing a party and she was in charge of table assignments. Trump was there
After grabbing the table assignment from her, Trump called her “the worst word.”
These are the stories of three brave women who decided to break their silence along with many other women who have been speaking out in the midst of large sexual misconduct accusations coming from all sectors.
From Roy Moore to Harvey Weinstein, women have been telling their stories and laying a pattern of sexual assault and misconduct that these powerful men are accused of through the #METOO movement. Although Donald Trump had been accused of sexual misconduct and assault for decades, social media platforms have allowed these women to speak up and have their voices heard.
