Donald Trump released a statement Friday disputing former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos’ claims that he groped and sexually harassed her, saying she has continued to ask him for professional help and accusing the Clinton campaign of being behind her accusations. He offered no evidence of the Clinton campaign’s involvement.
In a nationally publicized press conference alongside high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred, Zervos outlined her allegations of Trump’s sexual misconduct towards her. She was the latest in a string of women who have come forward with allegations Trump touched them without their consent or sexually harassed them.
Zervos said that Trump repeatedly sexually harassed her, kissed her and groped her without her consent and that she received less money on a job offer after she turned down his advances.
In his statement, Trump blamed the media for covering Zervos’ press conference and marveled that celebrity attorney “Gloria Allred is given the same weighting on national television as the President of the United States.”
Read the full statement below:
I vaguely remember Ms. Zervos as one of the many contestants on The Apprentice over the years. To be clear, I never met her at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately a decade ago. That is not who I am as a person, and it is not how I’ve conducted my life. In fact, Ms. Zervos continued to contact me for help, emailing my office on April 14th of this year asking that I visit her restaurant in California.
Beyond that, the media is now creating a theater of absurdity that threatens to tear our democratic process apart and poison the minds of the American public. When Gloria Allred is given the same weighting on national television as the President of the United States, and unfounded accusations are treated as fact, with reporters throwing due diligence and fact-finding to the side in a rush to file their stories first, it’s evident that we truly are living in a broken system.
Hillary Clinton can spend all of her time and money pushing complete lies against our campaign, but I refuse to fall victim to this vicious cycle of personal attacks. In the coming days I plan on addressing our nation in a more personal way to present my vision for how together we fight to bring back American jobs and defend our country against radical Islamic terrorism. I will take my message directly to the American people and bypass the unethical press that wants to see their candidate elected. Together, we will make America great again.
