The 22 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct
- At least 22 women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct between the 19 70s and 2013.
- Renewed attention has been brought to the allegations amid a national conversation concerning sexual misconduct.
- Trump continues to deny all of the accusations, calling the women "liars."
As a national conversation on sexual misconduct is gripping the country from Hollywood to Capitol Hill, some renewed attention has been focused on the sexual misconduct allegations that at least 22 women have made against President Donald Trump.
A deluge of women made their accusations public following the October 2016 release of the "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump was recorded boasting about grabbing women's genitals in 2005. Some others made their stories public months before the tape's release, and still others came forward as recently as December.
Trump has dismissed all of the allegations - which include ogling, harassment, groping, and rape - as "fabricated" and politically motivated accounts pushed by the media and his political opponents, and promised to sue all of his accusers. In some cases, he and his lawyer have suggested that Trump didn't engage in the alleged behavior with a certain woman because she was not attractive enough.
"Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign," the Republican nominee said during a 2016 rally. "Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over."
Trump has not yet made good on his promise to sue any of the women - although one, Summer Zervos, has sued him for defamation after he called all of his accusers liars - and the White House says that Trump's election shows the American people didn't consider the allegations disqualifying.
"The people of this country, at a decisive election, supported President Trump, and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that process," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters December 11 after several of Trump's accusers appeared on national television to rehash their allegations.
But despite Trump's denials, 50% of voters - 59% of women and 41% of men - surveyed in a Quinnipiac poll released December 19 think the president should resign as a result of the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Several Democratic lawmakers have recently called on Trump to resign over the accusations.
One accuser, Samantha Holvey, who recently spoke out again about her experience with Trump as a Miss USA pageant contestant, said that while his election was painful, she and others see the #MeToo movement as an opportunity to "try round two."
"We're private citizens, and for us to put ourselves out there to try and show America who this man is and especially how he views women, and for them to say 'meh, we don't care' - it hurts," Holvey said on NBC News' "Megyn Kelly Today" in December. "And so now it's just like, all right, let's try round two. The environment's different. Let's try again."