A woman who has accused Donald Trump of forcibly kissing her in 2006 said she wasn’t surprised he called her a liar — but warned that “he should be afraid” of the truth, according to a report.
“I would think as our president he would have more important things to do than tweet at me and try to discredit my story,” Rachel Crooks told CNN on Tuesday night. “I know what’s true. He knows what’s true, and I think he should be afraid of that.”
Crooks, 35, who has decided to run for state office in Ohio, has accused the president of smooching her without her consent when she was a 22-year-old receptionist at Trump Tower and he was 59.
Trump slammed Crooks in a tweet Tuesday after an article in the Washington Post detailed her account.
“A woman I don’t know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security … cameras running,” he railed.
“Another False Accusation. Why doesn’t @washingtonpost report the story of the women taking money to make up stories about me? One had her home mortgage paid off. Only @FoxNews so reported…doesn’t fit the Mainstream Media narrative,” he added.
Crooks — who has accused Trump of forcing himself on her on the 24th floor of his eponymous building, not the lobby — said “it is the first time, I guess, he’s attacked me personally on Twitter.”
“But his whole approach to this has been to deny the allegation of myself and, like you said, almost 20 women who have come forward. So it’s not surprising,” she said.
“When the truth is on your side, it doesn’t feel as bad. And I feel like I have a license to say what I feel about him given what he did to me,” she added.
She also called on Trump to release surveillance footage from the alleged incident.
“Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th-floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006,” Crooks tweeted.
“Let’s clear this up for everyone. It’s liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself.”
At least 15 women have leveled a host of accusations against Trump, ranging from sexual harassment and sexual assault to lewd behavior before he assumed the presidency. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.