Women who accuse former President Trump of sexual abuse are speaking out in dramatic new presidential campaign ads released on Wednesday.
In one, a former People magazine reporter details Trump groping her during what was supposed to be an interview at Mar-a-Lago. In the second, a fellow first-class air passenger describes how he fondled her during a flight. Both ads were created by a group led by conservative #NeverTrump lawyer George Conway.
“I tried to push him. He kept coming back at me,” journalist Natasha Stoynoff says in the ad of the 2005 incident at Trump’s Florida residence. “I was in shock and smothered, and he had his hands here against my shoulders.”
Trump Columnist Lawsuit
Stefan Jeremiah/AP Natasha Stoynoff walks outside federal court in New York, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (Stefan Jeremiah/AP)
Air traveler Jessica Leeds recounts how Trump sought to feel her breasts and put his hand up her skirt during a 1979 flight, when she was 38.
“The airplane took off, and all of a sudden Donald Trump started groping me,” Leeds says. He was trying to kiss me and I’m trying to push him away, he was basically overpowering me.”
Both women have spoken out previously about the alleged abuse. They testified at the E. Jean Carroll trial, when a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sex assault and defamation.
Trump vehemently denies the allegations and says he never met Leeds.
The graphic ad, which is not affiliated with the Harris-Walz campaign, is designed to remind voters of Trump’s alleged predatory behavior towards women as the presidential campaign heads into the home stretch ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5.
Trump and Harris remain locked in a virtual dead heat with averages of national polls giving the Democratic candidate only a narrow lead.
Conway, who is the ex-husband of Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, founded the Anti-Psychopath Political Action Committee, which paid for the ads. It vows to air them on TV stations in Trump’s home towns of Palm Beach, Florida and Bedminster, New Jersey as well as during next Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz.
Trump is performing poorly with women voters, polls show, and his critics say the stories of his alleged abuse will widen the so-called gender gap.
Ironically, the ads come just two days after Trump proclaimed himself the “protector” of American women during a campaign speech in battleground Pennsylvania.
“I am your protector. I want to be your protector,” Trump told thousands of supporters. “You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared. You will no longer be in danger.”
