--- title: Donald Trump Accusers: 'Not My First Choice' Transcript description: Donald Trump personally fired back at several women who have accused him of sexual harassment or assault at a campaign rally. canonical: https://time.com/4532181/donald-trump-north-carolina-accusers-speech-transcript/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-14T20:52:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:50:50.819Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Trump's Speech Attacking His Accusers og:description: "Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you." og:url: https://time.com/4532181/donald-trump-north-carolina-accusers-speech-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt375e882cdf936ffd/6988aa19a988ca3cf46b9c25/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Trump's Speech Attacking His Accusers twitter:description: "Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt375e882cdf936ffd/6988aa19a988ca3cf46b9c25/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Donald Trump's Speech Attacking His Accusers > 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=04280eb3-f579-4b92-992d-4a459cdf53b6&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 [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 14, 2016 8:52 PM UTC by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 14, 2016 8:52 PM UTC Donald Trump personally [fired back at several women](http://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack/) who have accused him of sexual harassment or assault at a campaign rally in North Carolina. Speaking in front of a rowdy crowd in Greensboro Friday afternoon, Trump said all of the allegations were lies, called one accuser a “horrible woman,” told his followers to look another up on Facebook and said another accuser “would not be my first choice.” Here’s a complete transcript of the rally. --- > “” --- ## 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/4532181/donald-trump-north-carolina-accusers-speech-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4532181/donald-trump-north-carolina-accusers-speech-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Donald Trump's Speech Attacking His Accusers","datePublished":"2016-10-14T20:52:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T06:50:50.819Z","description":"'Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you'","url":"https://time.com/4532181/donald-trump-north-carolina-accusers-speech-transcript/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","North Carolina","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt375e882cdf936ffd/6988aa19a988ca3cf46b9c25/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt375e882cdf936ffd/6988aa19a988ca3cf46b9c25/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Friday, Oct. 14, 2016, in Greensboro, N.C. 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