WASHINGTON, D.C.: Two more women including a contestant on Donald Trump’s show “The Apprentice” came forward Friday (Saturday in Manila) to accuse the presidential candidate of unwarranted sexual advances.
They were the latest in a stream of women accusing Trump of predatory sexual behavior, adding to the woes of his now free-falling presidential bid.
Summer Zervos, a contestant in season five on Trump’s reality TV show, said that after he “fired” her she remained in touch with him, viewing him as a mentor. The winner of each season in the now-defunct program got a job with the Trump Organization.
In 2007, Trump arranged to meet Zervos at the Beverly Hills hotel for dinner to talk about employment. Instead, she said, when she showed up she was taken to a bungalow and Trump started kissing and touching her.
“He began kissing me aggressively and placed his hand on my breast,” Zervos told a news conference in Los Angeles.
She added: “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.’ He repeated my words back to me, ‘get real,’ as he began thrusting his genitals.”
Zervos said she decided to speak out after hearing Trump deny – during last week’s debate – that he had ever behaved like a sexual predator.
A video tape released two days earlier by the Washington Post features Trump boasting he got away with grabbing women by the crotch because he is famous.
Also Friday a former aspiring model, Kristin Anderson, told the Post that Trump had sidled up to her in a nightclub in the early 1990s, reached under her skirt and touched her vagina through her panties.
‘International smear campaign’
Trump on Friday (Saturday in Manila) rejected claims of women accusing him of sexual misconduct, and portrayed himself as the victim of a “smear campaign” orchestrated by the media and established politicians.
President Barack Obama warned meanwhile that America’s very democracy is at stake in the November 8 election because of the Republican presidential candidate.
As Trump spoke at a rally, Zervos came forward to accuse him.
The Trump campaign said in a statement that he “vaguely remembered” Zervos, but shot down her accusation.
It later released a statement from one John Barry, identified as Zervos’ first cousin, claiming that Zervos had praised Trump for years. Barry implied that Zervos was upset because Trump refused to visit her California restaurant during the primaries.
Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton called the election “incredibly painful.”
“I take absolutely no satisfaction in what is happening on the other side with my opponent,” she told a crowd at a campaign field office in Seattle, Washington. “I am not at all happy about that.”
“It hurts our democracy.”
‘Lies, lies, lies’
The torrent of allegations against Trump was unleashed by the October 7 release of audio from 2005 in which Trump bragged that he could get away with grabbing women’s crotches because he’s famous.
“Lies, lies, lies,” Trump thundered at a rally Friday in Greensboro, North Carolina, referring to sexual misconduct allegations reported by the New York Times and other media.
“I have no idea who these women are. The stories are total fiction.”
He also had words for Jessica Leeds, who said he groped and kissed her as they sat next to each other on a plane in the 1980s.
Said Trump: “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you,” eliciting laughter from the crowd.
At a later rally in Charlotte he claimed to be “the victim of one of the great political smear campaigns in the history of our country.