Donald Trump called the string of sexual assault allegations against him “lies” and “fiction” as he squared off against Hillary Clinton in the third presidential debate in Las Vegas Wednesday night.
During the debate topic “fitness to be president,” moderator Chris Wallace pressed Trump on the sexual assault accusations from various women.
“First of all those stories have largely been debunked,” Trump said. “Those people, I don’t know those people. I have a feeling how they came. I believe it was her campaign that did it.”
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The Republican candidate then pivoted, pointing to a report earlier Wednesday about Conservative activist James O’Keefe. O’Keefe reportedly released secretly recorded, selectively edited video footage that includes a Democratic activist bragging about deploying troublemakers at Trump rallies.
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At least nine women have come forward with accusations that Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted them, including reports in The New York Times, The Washington Post and People. Summer Zervos, 41, held a press conference Friday with high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, who said Trump made aggressive, unwanted sexual advances in a Beverly Hills, California, hotel room in 2007.
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“Those stories are all totally false,” he continued. “I didn’t even apologize to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn’t do anything. I didn’t know any of these, I didn’t see these women.”
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Hillary Clinton responded to Trump by reiterating his public response at rallies last week where he insulted his accusers saying, “When you looked at that horrible woman last night you said, ‘I don’t think so.’… Believe me, she would not be my first choice.”
“What was his response? He held a number of big rallies where he said he could not possibly have done those things to those women because they were not attractive enough to be assaulted,” the Democratic candidate said.
Trump interrupted Clinton repeatedly saying “I did not say that” before being admonished by Wallace.
“He attacked the woman reporter writing the story. Called her disgusting as he has called a number of women during this campaign,” Clinton said referring to Natasha Stoynoff, a former staff writer at People magazine. “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth. And I don’t think there is a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.”
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On Tuesday, at least six people have come forward to corroborate Stoynoff’s account of being sexually assaulted by Trump following an interview for the magazine in 2005.
“I think it’s really up to all of us to demonstrate who we are and who our country is, and to stand up and be very clear about what we expect from our next president,” Clinton said. “How we want to bring our country together, where we don’t want to have the kind of pitting of people one against the other where instead we celebrate our diversity, we lift people up, and we make our country even greater.”
*With files from the Associated Press
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