Former Miss North Carolina USA: It’s ‘round two’ to hold Trump accountable for sexual misconduct

A former Miss North Carolina USA who accused then presidential candidate Donald Trump last year of sexual misconduct appeared on NBC’s “Megyn Kelly TODAY” Monday to tout “round two” of the effort to hold Trump accountable amid a wave of sexual assault allegations against powerful men.

Samantha Holvey, one of the three women who appeared in the segment, is from Buies Creek. She held the title of Miss North Carolina USA 2006 and competed in the Miss USA pageant that same year.

Holvey graduated from Campbell University and now lives in South Carolina, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Last year when Trump was the Republican nominee for president, Holvey told CNN that Trump entered the dressing room of the Miss USA pageant in 2006 to personally inspect each contestant “from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects.”

On Monday she appeared on the show with Jessica Leeds, who says Trump groped her on a plane in the 1970s, and Rachel Crooks, a former Trump Tower receptionist who says Trump kissed her on the mouth in 2005.

“We’re private citizens, and for us to put ourselves out there to try and show America who this man is and how he views women, and for them to say ‘Eh, we don’t care,’ it hurt,” Holvey said on Megyn Kelly TODAY on Monday.

“Now it’s like, all right, let’s try round two, the environment is different,” she said. “Let’s try again.”

The environment is indeed different as several men from Hollywood, the news media and politics have faced sexual assault allegations this year.

In a news conference also held Monday by Brave New Films, the three women asked for Trump to be held accountable.

“In some areas, the accusations of sexual aggression were being taken seriously,” Leeds said referring to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein.

“And people were being held accountable. Except for our president. In fact, his staff made a big point of calling us all liars,” Leeds said.

The Senate was “more than willing” to launch an ethics investigation about the sexual harassment allegations against Sen. Al Franken, Crooks pointed out in the interview with Megyn Kelly.

“Why is the president immune to that?” Crooks asked.

Franken announced his resignation last week after several women accused him of groping them as he posed in photographs with them.

Kelly read a White House statement that was sent while the show was airing live.

“These false claims, totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts, were addressed at length during last year’s campaign, and the American people voiced their judgment by delivering a decisive victory,” the White House statement said.

“The timing and absurdity of these claims speaks volumes. And the publicity tour that has begun only further confirms the political motives behind them.”

The statement did not indicate which episodes the Trump administration claimed to be disputed by eyewitnesses.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!</p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940554567414091776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2017</a></blockquote>

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At least 16 women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct, according to Time, and Trump’s administration has denied the allegations.

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Former Miss North Carolina USA: It’s ‘round two’ to hold Trump accountable for sexual misconduct."