A new report is adding to the pressure on the Republican presidential nominee with the election weeks away. Donald Trump’s campaign has been dealing with fallout since a 2005 recording surfaced last week in which he made lewd remarks about women. Now, former pageant contestants are speaking out about the Miss Teen USA pageant he owned at the time.
According to BuzzFeed, four former contestants from the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant said Trump walked into their dressing room while they were changing. The contestants were teenagers at the time. One of them, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA, went on the record. She told BuzzFeed that girls scrambled to grab clothing and that she quickly put on her dress. She also recalled Trump telling the group not to worry because he had seen it all before. The other three women asked not to be named, but BuzzFeed reported that they described the moment as shocking and creepy.
BuzzFeed also reported that a former Miss Arizona described a similar experience at the 2001 pageant. She said contestants were changing for a rehearsal when Trump came in, and that some were not fully dressed. She told the outlet that contestants felt they had nowhere to take a complaint because he owned the pageant.
The accounts are not undisputed. Trump’s campaign called the allegations baseless and said people who were present had already disproven them. Other former contestants from that pageant told reporters they did not remember anything like that happening. One said there was heavy security and that if anything inappropriate had occurred, word would have spread quickly among the contestants. Some said it could have happened without them noticing.
The reports also revived comments Trump made on a 2005 episode of The Howard Stern Show, in which he said that as the pageant owner he was allowed to walk in while contestants were getting dressed. Trump’s campaign has not changed its position that the new claims are false.
We will keep you posted as more information comes in.
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