“DONALD Trump should not be the president of the United States. Period.”
These are the words of Agunda Okeyo, a 34-year-old Kenyan-born immigrant, raised in New York City. Ms Okeyo joined a large group of multiracial women, all dressed in black, protesting outside Trump Tower in Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
Led by survivors of s3xual assault, the women formed a wall out the front of the Republican candidate’s local campaign office, calling on voters to reject Trump and demanding elected officials drop their support of the New York billionaire. Various chants condemned his “politics of hate” and referred to him as a “s3xual predator” and a “dictator”.
“I hope that on social media and through the press people come to recognise that there are a lot of really passionate women who are activists who have been involved in shaping this country,” Ms Okeyo, one of the collaborators, told news.com.au.
“[These women] are completely, completely upset by the idea of this f***ing psychopath getting into a position that he’s gotten into and actually even having the potential to become the president of this country.”
Among the crowd gathered outside Trump Tower, many were holding banners with messages such as “Wall off Trump” and “Pussy Grabs Back”, a reference to Trump’s now infamous 2005 video. Among them, girls as young as nine years old stood with their mothers, holding signs in the air. One read, “GOP Hands Off Me!”
The young girl’s mother, Jane Pool, 53, explained why she brought her daughter to the demonstration.
“We needed to come here just for her to see we can say this is not OK,” Ms Pool told NY Post.
“Her father, my husband, sat down with the kids around the table [after the tape emerged] and told them, ‘This is not OK, this is not how adults talk’.
“But not all kids have someone to say that to them. They think, ‘Wow, this guy is on this huge level, and this is the way he talks.’
“The kids are paying attention.”
“We’re here today because we’re tired of taking a back seat to white men who are going to decide what’s best for us and for our bodies,” said fellow demonstrator Nadya Stevens. “We’re here to shut that down.”
Speaking about her personal response to the recently surfaced tape, and the events of the last week surrounding the election, Ms Okeyo told news.com.au she was “furious”.
“I’m absolutely furious, I cannot believe that this creature has gotten this far to actually even be potentially possible of president of this country. He’s not representative of it,” she said.
“I grew up in New York City, I’m an immigrant, this is an immigrant city, this is a port city, this city represents America in so many ways and this man has no relationship to what America really is, he just doesn’t.
“We came together to make sure everyone knew, this is America, not that guy [Trump].”
Wednesday morning’s protest is part of a national wave of multiracial women-led actions aiming to “make visible women’s power to live full lives free from fear of racial, economic and s3xual assault,” the release states.
Trump drew a firestorm of criticism over the weekend after the 2005 tape surfaced of his conversation with Billy Bush, then a host for Access Hollywood.
Trump apologised for the lewd comments, which included bragging about grabbing women “by the p***y”. During Sunday night’s second presidential debate, he dismissed the remarks as “locker room banter”.
Meanwhile, Trump is campaigning in Florida again one day after firing attacks at members of his own party, suggesting some may lose their jobs if he is elected.
During an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, Trump specifically ripped House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has said he will not campaign with the real estate mogul.
Ryan has told fellow Republicans in tight election races to focus on their seat rather than supporting the party’s nominee for president.
“The fact is, I think we should get support and we don’t get the support from guys like Paul Ryan,” he said. “I’m just tired of non-support and I don’t really want his support. This happens all the time — if you sneeze he calls up and announces isn’t that a terrible thing.”
When O’Reilly suggested that Trump may need Ryan’s support if he is elected, Trump replied, “I would think that Ryan maybe wouldn’t be there, maybe he’ll be in a different position.”
His comments come after 40 Republicans revoked their endorsement of Trump in the wake of the damaging video.
