--- title: Donald Trump Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault description: Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks against the women accusing him of sexual assault, firing back at them personally at a campaign rally. canonical: https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-14T19:36:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:50:49.173Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault og:description: He said they were lying and called two unattractive. og:url: https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1d5b67c5691aa1/6988aa2fcd1bba2f38702b94/trump-attack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Campaigns In Charlotte, North Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault twitter:description: He said they were lying and called two unattractive. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1d5b67c5691aa1/6988aa2fcd1bba2f38702b94/trump-attack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Personally Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=619dca04-2824-49db-ace8-04f34da9e0cb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Personally Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Personally Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9BNDBkz1.m3u8) (2:15)  _Published 2016-10-14. Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks against the women accusing him of sexual assault_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 14, 2016 7:36 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 14, 2016 7:36 PM UTC Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks against the [women accusing him of sexual assault](http://time.com/4530242/donald-trump-sexual-allegations/?xid=tcoshare), firing back at them personally at a campaign rally without using their names. Speaking in front of a rowdy crowd in Greensboro, North Carolina, Friday afternoon, Trump said all of the allegations were lies, called one accuser a “horrible woman,” told his followers to look up another on Facebook and said another accuser “would not be my first choice.” “When you looked at that horrible woman last night, you said, ‘I don’t think so,'” he said about one of his accusers. The rally was Trump’s most aggressive effort yet to defend himself on the sexual assault allegations that have come out since he denied ever touching women inappropriately at the second presidential debate. He mocked the allegations, calling them lies and, at one point, even mimicking grabbing someone with his hand. While Trump was speaking, former _Apprentice_ contestant Summer Zervos was holding a press conference in which she said that in 2007 Trump kissed her, groped her and attempted to seduce her during what she thought was a professional dinner meeting. At the rally, Trump called People magazine reporter [Natasha Stoynoff](http://people.com/politics/donald-trump-attacked-people-writer/), who claims he forcibly kissed her in 2005 while she was writing an article about him, a liar, and may have implied for the second time that she was not attractive enough for him to try to kiss. (On Thursday, [he said of Stoynoff](http://time.com/4530339/donald-trump-sexual-assault-media-hillary-clinton/?iid=sr-link1), “Look at her, look at her words, you tell me what you think. I don’t think so.”) “She is a liar,” he said. “Check out her Facebook page, you’ll understand.” **Read More:** [_Transcript of Donald Trump’s Speech on His Accusers_](http://time.com/4532181/donald-trump-north-carolina-accusers-speech-transcript/) He also attacked the appearance of Jessica Leeds, who claims Trump groped her on an airplane. “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you,” he said. He also questioned the most recent allegation, from a woman named Kristin Anderson [in the Washington _Post_ today](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/woman-says-trump-reached-under-her-skirt-and-groped-her-in-early-1990s/2016/10/14/67e8ff5e-917d-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae%5Fstory.html?hpid=hp%5Frhp-top-table-main%5Fno-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory) , who says that he put his hand up her skirt at a club, arguing it could not be true because he doesn’t ever go to clubs by himself. “I was sitting alone in some club? I really don’t sit alone that much, folks,” he said. Trump categorically denied the allegations against him, arguing alternately that the women were doing so for attention and that they were part of a media conspiracy to bring down his campaign, singling out New York _Times_ shareholder Carlos Slim, who is Mexican, as partly responsible for the coverage. “They have no witnesses,” he said of the accusers. “There’s nobody around. They just come out. Some are doing it for probably a little fame. They get some free fame.” Advancing his theory that these accusations are part of [a conspiracy against him](http://time.com/4530568/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-conspiracy/?xid=homepage) by journalists and the Clinton campaign, Trump said, “The process is rigged. This whole election is being rigged.” He argued that media coverage is “poisoning the minds of the electorate.” Still, Trump seemed aware of the damage these stories could do to his campaign. “If 5% of the people think it’s true, maybe even 10%, we don’t win,” he said. But when he polled the audience and asked them if he should be responding to the allegations, he appeared to be secure in his choice. “When you get hit, you hit back,” he said. “You gotta do it.’ ## Transcript I am being viciously attacked with lies and smears. It's a phony deal. I have no idea who these idea who these women are. I have no idea. I have no idea. And I think you all know I have no idea because you understand me for a lot fo years. Okay. When you looked at that horrible woman last night you said I don't think so. I don't think so. The stories are total fiction. They're 100 % made up. They never happened. They never would happen. I don't think that happened with very many people, but they certainly aren't gonna happen with me. Some are doing it for probably a little fame. They get some free fame. It's a total setup. Now suddenly after many, many years phony accusers come out Less than a month before one of the most important elections in the history of our country. I don't know who they are, I don't know who. Think that what's happening to our country, think of what's happened. I don't know who these people are. I look on television, I think it's a disgusting thing, and it's being pushed, they have no witnesses. There's nobody around. Folks. You know, my people always says, don't talk about it. Talk about jobs. Talk about the economy. Don't worry about it. Your jobs will be coming back to North Carolina like you've never seen, the economy is going to be good. But I feel I have to talk about it. Because you have to dispute when somebody says something. And fortunately we have the microphone, we're able to dispute, some people can't. One came out recently where I was sitting alone at some club. I really don't sit alone that much. Honestly, folks, I don't think I sit alone, I go in with [ UNKNOWN ], I was sitting alone by myself, like this. And then I went, [ UNKNOWN ] [ LAUGH ] To somebody, I just heard this one, it's like unbelievable. Even a simple investigation would have shown these allegations against me, in just about all cases, it's nonsense. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Personally Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault","datePublished":"2016-10-14T19:36:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T06:50:49.173Z","description":"Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks against the women accusing him of sexual assault, firing back at them personally at a campaign rally.","url":"https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1d5b67c5691aa1/6988aa2fcd1bba2f38702b94/trump-attack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1d5b67c5691aa1/6988aa2fcd1bba2f38702b94/trump-attack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Campaigns In Charlotte, North Carolina","caption":"Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 14, 2016.","creditText":"Brian Blanco—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/","name":"Donald Trump Personally Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump Personally Attacked the Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault","description":"Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks against the women accusing him of sexual assault","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/9BNDBkz1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-10-14T20:30:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9BNDBkz1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/","duration":"PT2M15S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```