A woman in Palm Beach, Florida says Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump grabbed her buttocks during a party and concert at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in 2003.
"I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald," said Mindy McGillivray -- who was 23 at the time -- to the Palm Beach Post. “This was a pretty good nudge. More of a grab. It was pretty close to the center of my butt. I was startled. I jumped."
McGillivray said that the incident took place at a party in 2003 where one of her idols, R&B legend Ray Chalres, was set to perform. She attended the party with photographer Ken Davidoff, who vividly remembers the moment after the reality TV star pawed McGillivray's backside because she pulled him aside and said, "Donald Trump just grabbed my ass!"
The Florida woman kept the humiliation a secret for years, but when she saw Trump at the second presidential debate blandly assure moderator Anderson Cooper that he has never groped a woman without her consent, she shouted at the television, "You liar!"
McGillivray told the Post that in January of 2003, she accompanied Davidoff and his late father Bob Davidoff -- both photographers -- to Mar-a-Lago to work as the Davidoffs' assistant while they photographed the guests at the concert and party. It was McGillivray's job to keep track of the name plates of everyone the father and son photographed, a job that she had performed on five or six occasions prior to the night in question.
“Ken says, ‘We’re going to get backstage. Ray Charles is going to be there.’ He was one of my idols," McGillivray said. “Ken wanted to get a picture of me and Ray, but that didn’t happen because he had all these bodyguards."
She found herself standing in a group of people in a pavilion at the resort. Davidoff described the scene as Regis Philbin and his wife Joy on one side of McGillivray and Donald and Melania Trump on the other.
“Ray already performed. He’s ready to leave. He’s saying his goodbyes to everyone," she recalled.
“All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I’m stunned," she said.
At which point, McGillivray said that she asked herself, "'OK, am I going to say something now and make a scene or be quiet?’ I chose to stay quiet."
When asked whether the touch she felt could have been an accident or someone innocently bumping into her, she replied, "This was a pretty good nudge. More of a grab. It was pretty close to the center of my butt. I was startled. I jumped."
Since last Friday when a 2005 video of Trump saying repulsively sexist things went public -- followed by Trump's blithe denial at the debate -- a growing number of women have come forward with stories about Trump touching them inappropriately and without their consent.
The Daily Beast has published a timeline dating back to the early 80s of all of the accusations of inappropriate touching or groping against Donald Trump, beginning with Jessica Leeds, who told the New York Times this week that Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to reach up her skirt when they were seated next to each other on a flight in 1980.
Leeds had never met Trump before he started touching her against her will. She fled to the back of the plane to escape his unwanted advances. Leeds and former Trump tower receptionist Rachel Crooks both contacted the Times with their stories.
Like McGillivray, Leeds was watching the presidential debate on TV when Trump lied to Anderson Cooper about his history of assaulting women sexually, which brought up all the anger she felt about the attack.
“I wanted to punch the screen,” she said.
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