Former Fox News anchor Juliet Huddy said President Donald Trump tried to kiss her in an elevator around the time he married First Lady Melania.
Huddy, who allegedly received a settlement after she made a complaint against disgraced anchor Bill O’Reilly, described how the mogul leaned in to kiss her after he took her to lunch at Trump Tower in 2005.
The TV newswoman, who now hosts a radio show on WABC Radio, revealed on “Mornin!!! with Bill Schulz” on compoundmedia.com, that she had rebuffed the now-president in the Trump Tower elevator. And Trump later appeared on her Fox News chat show, and joked to the audience, “I hit on her but she blew me off.”
Huddy said of Trump, “He took me for lunch at Trump Tower, just us two. He said goodbye to me in an elevator while his security guy was there, rather than kiss me on the cheek he leaned in to kiss me on the lips. I wasn’t offended, I was kind of like, ‘Oh my god’.” She said she went to meet a friend and Trump then invited them both back to see “The Apprentice” set, “And everything was copacetic after that.”
But she added, “I was surprised that he went for the lips. But I didn’t feel threatened … he took me out to lunch to talk about maybe me doing something with ‘The Apprentice.’ He used to watch ‘Fox & Friends,’ the show I was hosting on the weekend. Whatever, everything was fine. It was a weird moment. He never tried anything after that, and I was never alone with him.”
But she said Trump later joked about his clumsy pass at her when appearing on her Fox News morning talk show a few years later. Huddy explained, “Trump was a guest and he came on stage, He said, to the audience and producers, not on camera, ‘I tried hitting on her but she blew me off.’ He was laughing. At the time I was not offended by it, I thought he was a single man and leaned in for a kiss… maybe he thought, ‘She’s been out to lunch with me and maybe she is interested.’
“Now I have matured I think I would say, ‘Woah, no’, but at the time I was younger and I was a little shocked. I thought maybe he didn’t mean to do it, but I was kind of making excuses. The elevator incident and the lunch was 2005 or 2006,” she added. Trump married Melania in January 2005.
Huddy made the comment after discussing Trump’s slurs, said by the White House to be caused by dry mouth. When asked by fellow guest, writer Samantha Judge, “Do you remember his lips being dry?” Huddy responded, “I don’t remember. No.'”
She continued talking about Trump’s reaction to the allegations against Bill O’Reilly, “I’ve seen him [Trump] many times over the years and he’s always been nice….When all the stuff came out about Bill O’Reilly, Donald Trump was one of the people who said, ‘I don’t believe this happened and I don’t believe he did it’… I was actually very disappointed in Trump, I thought, ‘You know what, f–k you.’ He [Trump] has met me a bunch of times and he knows I am not [a liar]”
A White House official denied the account.