Posted on 10/14/2016 7:01:01 PM PDT by AZLiberty
When Jessica Leeds was a traveling paper saleswoman in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she told herself that sexual harassment was just a fact of life.
"You didn't complain about that sort of thing," she told NPR in an interview Friday, which will air on All Things Considered.
But an encounter she says she had with Donald Trump on a New York-bound airplane more than 30 years ago was different. As she initially recounted to the New York Times in a story published Wednesday, she says Trump groped and kissed her as the two sat next to each other in first class.
"Whether it was 15 minutes or not, it seemed like forever," she said.
The encounter had begun as a "cordial" conversation over an in-flight dinner. Leeds said she had been escorted by a flight attendant from coach to first class, where she found herself seated next to Trump.
"They served a dinner. After the dinner was cleared he began encroaching on my side of the seat," Leeds told NPR's Audie Cornish. "Mr. Trump started coming over to me and groping me and trying to embrace me. And then his hands started going up my skirt."
Leeds said the assault continued for several minutes, though, as she recalls, neither she nor Trump ever said anything.
"I don't recall saying no, I don't recall saying stop," she said. "I don't recall saying anything. It was like a silent pantomime. I remember at one point looking over at the guy in the seat across the aisle, and his eyes were like bugging out of his head."
Leeds said she eventually stood up and walked back to her initial seat in coach, where she remained for the rest of the flight.
"It really rattled me," she said, to the point where after the flight landed, she remained in her seat until everyone else had exited the airplane, so that she wouldn't have to confront Trump a second time.
In the days since Leeds' report first surfaced, Trump has denied every detail of the encounter. In fact, he is framing her story and similar accounts from other women published in recent days as a "concerted, coordinated, and vicious attack" launched by media outlets to elect Hillary Clinton.
"The claims are preposterous, ludicrous, and defy truth, common sense and logic," Trump told a Florida crowd Thursday. "Another ridiculous tale, no witnesses, no nothing."
NPR has reached out to the Trump campaign for additional comment. The campaign has not responded, though Trump did address Leeds' allegations again Friday afternoon in North Carolina.
"Oh, I was with Donald Trump in 1980," Trump said, mimicking Leeds' accusation. "I was sitting with him on an airplane, and he went after me on the plane."
"Yeah, I'm going to go after you," Trump said dismissively, waving his arms. "Believe me she would not be my first choice. That I can tell you."
"You don't know. That would not be my first choice."
Leeds said she did her best to forget the incident and move on.
"If I had complained my boss, I think, would have said, 'Look, that's part of the job. You've got to take care of yourself there,' " Leeds said. "This just wasn't done. You just accepted it."
And that's what she did for decades, until Trump ran for president. As he advanced through the primaries, Leeds told the New York Times, friends and family she had shared the incident with urged her to come forward, but she resisted.
"It had been so long ago, and the usual, 'Well, it's a he said/she said situation,' " she reasoned.
That changed Sunday night, when debate moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN asked Trump whether he had ever groped or kissed women without their permission, as he had boasted to Access Hollywood's Billy Bush in an unearthed 2005 tape.
When Trump said he had never grabbed nor kissed women without their consent, Leeds said she "jumped out of my skin and wanted to punch the screen. ... I found myself on my feet yelling at the TV, saying, 'He's lying.' "
After a sleepless night, Leeds decided to contact the Times.
Since then, her life has taken an unexpected turn. She is screening her calls and dealing with photographers camped outside her apartment. (A situation for which she made a point to tell NPR she apologizes to her neighbors.)
"Obviously, if I had any idea this would have created such an uproar," she said, "I might have had second thoughts about writing the Times."
But Leeds is hoping some good comes out of her story.
"It would be nice if we could address some of these issues between men and women and try to learn from it, try to grow from it," she said.
Leeds added that she had convinced herself that contemporary women don't deal with the same type of harassment she experienced in the workplace, but now she doesn't quite believe that anymore.
"So, while I'd like to think things are better for women, I'm not so sure they are," Leeds said. "But it would be nice if we could have some sort of conversation go on from here that would deal with this matter."
An important thing to remember is that “progressives” do not care about truth or honesty. Political power is their only value.
So they manufacture lies whenever they find them useful.
Is a 35 year old claim, that conveniently comes up just before an election, credible. NO.
Direct WikiLeaks link:
https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/emailid/12803
The Dems started putting this “Trump is a groper” scheme in May at the latest. This e-mail (which will be laughed off as a “prank” or “joke”, just watch) details a Craigslist ad the Dems wanted to publish to lay the groundwork for this sort of smear campaign.
She sounds like a “skinwalker”. Evil, evil humanoids.
If people haven’t figured out the media by now nothing they do will convince them..they know these stories are BOGUS..where were they in June 2015, July, August, September, October, November, December..all the way til October of this year, THEN they decide to come out..NOTHING in 40 years from these people until NOW..and when the election is over the media will say “Yeah we knew these women were full of crap but hey, Hillary Clinton is President so suck on that”
She is a phony, and has other issues. Strange woman looking for her 15 minutes of fame.
So he goes to the bathroom and she waits for him to return to grope some more? Hillary's crazy crew.
I’m sorry. As fictitious as the story sounds, It this is true why did she leave coach to go sit with Trump and then consent to whatever he was doing....and then 30 years later come up with a different response than she had when she was there 30 years ago ? Your yes then can now be a no? For example, if a woman has consensual sex and 20 years later determines that was the wrong decision .....is that an assault after the fact cause that’s exactly what she’s essentially saying. Wow. Crazy times.
Its not possible. If you’ve sat in first class you can see for yourself such a thing simply couldn’t happen. If it couldn’t happen, it didn’t happen.
"I might have had second thoughts about writing the Times."I'm a bit unclear on the timeline here -- Did she write to the Times during the debate on Sunday or perhaps on Monday? When did the Times publish her story?
...same tactic used every four years over the last 30 years.
Remarkable lack of support from Speaker Ryan - snake is openly Hillary.
Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton have several women claiming assault throughout their careers.
Simple: The media belong to the State now
She was trying to jump Trump while wearing a pantssuit, not a skirt thingy.
Just this one sentence, (not to mention many others), proves that this is all a lie. And apparently it's her twisted little fantasy.
As the daughter of a pilot and flight attendant whose employment went all the way back to 1961, and as a former flight attendant myself, I can tell you her story is 100% bullshizzle.
Flight Attendants do not "escort" randoms up to first class for any reason and never have. Much less to seat said random next to a celebrity millionaire...and serve her dinner! For f***'s sake! It's actually laughable! (Sounds like she's been watching too much bad porn.)
I personally have worked 737s (even the old 200s), 727s (some that were 30+ years old...the manufacturer's certificates with date of certification are posted inside the first door), DC-10s, 757s, 767s, 747s, plus the A-320,319, and 777 (all irrelevant as they weren't flying in early 80s). Not a single one of them had first class arm rests that could be raised up. In fact, the only time I ever saw a first class center armrest removed was on a DC-10 out of Washington DC and we had to bring a mechanic onboard to remove it for Jay Leno, who wanted to lay down across two FC seats.
Why did she wait until now if this is true? For that reason, I am discounting her as being a Dem operative.
Isn’t she an employee of the Crime Fam Foundatoon?
Whether she left the country or not, she’s certainly traveling light in the head. The only way to stomp TRUMP asunder is the ‘molester’ card. The female, racist, and most of the other cards have already been played. OLD MAID! That’s the card ILLary’s holding for the last hand.
And a Clinton foundation secretary. Bullshit.
Leeds said she “jumped out of my skin and wanted to punch the screen...”
___
Jumping out of her skin would definitely be an improvement for her.
The media hasn’t been the media in a LONG TIME..the Clinton Foundation ALONE could put ANYONE in jail for LIFE, but the Clintons, they get put in the White House..the media is the enemy of America but unfortunately as much as the people hate them and distrust them they STILL listen to them, and like sheep do their bidding..if the media didnt think people would fall in line with them they wouldn’t dare bother posting this stuff
Bookmark
Sue this lying democrat operative!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.